company was missing. One after the other had answered to their names,
and it had so nearly reached the end, that we began to hope there might
be some mistake after all, when that of Bobby Smudge was called. There
was no answer. Poor Bobby! There could be but little doubt that the
unfortunate wretch had put his threat of making away with himself into
execution, rather than longer endure the tyranny of Mr Chissel. I
hoped that the carpenter's accusing conscience would make him repent of
his cruelty. This surmise as to the poor boy's fate was confirmed the
next morning, when some of his clothes were discovered under the
forechains. The next day the chief conversation among the men was about
Bobby Smudge's suicide, and of the threats he had uttered of haunting
the ship. This led to the recounting of similar circumstances; and many
a forecastle yarn was spun that evening, abounding in horrors sufficient
to make the hairs of a less stout-hearted auditory stand on end. From
the extraordinary remarks I heard as I passed about the decks, I
declared, when I went to the berth, that I believed that some of the men
fully expected to see poor Bobby Smudge come in at one of the ports and
drive all hands out of the ship. A seaman will encounter anything
living and tangible with a hearty good-will; but he has a mortal
antipathy to meet any spirit, black, blue, white, or green, from the
nether world.

"I say, D'Arcy, it would be great fun if we could just manage to give
some of these fellows a fright," whispered Dicky Sharpe. "A white sheet
and a howl would do it. I could manage to imitate Bobby Smudge's voice,
and I should just like to look in on old Chissel when he is taking his
first snooze. I'd just mutter, `Bobby Smudge's ghost come to fetch you
away, you old sinner,' and his villainous conscience would do the rest."

"Don't play any such foolish trick, Dicky," said I. "You would
certainly be found out in the first place, and get severely punished
into the bargain. Besides, the matter is too serious to be turned into
a joke. Think of that poor unfortunate wretch, driven to despair, and
plunged suddenly into another world, through the cruelty and tyranny of
one who ought to have protected him, and tried to make him better!"

"But he was plunged into the sea," said Dicky, interrupting me; "and as
for the cruelty he received, I don't think he was so very much worse off
than numbers of other fellows in his position."