amble, as soon as he had passed any shoal or
danger, pointed it out to me; he said, "I tell it to you, because you
can't be told too often. You won't recollect much that I tell you, I
daresay; I don't expect it; but you may recollect a little, and every
little helps."

The tide had flowed more than an hour when we passed the Nore Light and
came to an anchor.

"What lights are those?" inquired I.

"That's Sheerness," replied Bramble. "We were talking of the French and
Danes coming up the river. Why, Tom, it is not much more than one
hundred and fifty years ago when the Dutch fleet came up to Sheerness,
destroyed the batteries, and landed troops there; howsomever, as I said
of the French and the other chaps, they won't do so again in a hurry."

As soon as they had veered out sufficient cable, Bramble accepted the
invitation of the captain to go down in the cabin, when I went and
joined the men, who were getting their supper forwards. I was soon on
good terms with them; and after supper, as it was cold, they went down
to the fore-peak, got out some beer and grog, and we sat round in a
circle, with the bottles and mugs and a farthing candle in the centre.
Being right in the _eyes_ of her, as it is termed, we could plainly hear
the water slapping against the bends outside of her, as it was divided
by the keelson, and borne away by the strong flood tide. It was a
melancholy sound; I had never heard it before; and during a pause, as I
listened to it, one of the men observed, "Queer sound, boy, ain't it?
You'd think that the water was lapping in right among us. But noises
aboard ship don't sound as they do on shore; I don't know why." No more
did I at that time; the fact is that nothing conveys sound better than
wood, and every slight noise is magnified, in consequence, on board of a
vessel.

"I recollect when I was on a Mediterranean voyage how we were frightened
with noises, sure enough," observed one of the men.

"Come, that's right, Dick, give us a yarn," said the others.

"Yes," replied Dick, "and it's a true yarn too, and all about a ghost."

"Well, I stop a moment," said one of the men, "and let us top this glim
a bit before you begin, for it seemed to get dimmer the moment you
talked about a ghost."

Dick waited till a little more light was obtained, and then commenced.
"I had shipped on board of a vessel bound to Smyrna, now about seven
years ago. We had gone down to Portsmouth, where we waited for on