at the moment; my tongue clove to the roof of my
mouth, and I rose to take hold of his hand."

"Then he disappeared, did he not?"

"Yes, Master Jack."

"I thought so."

"But I heard the door of my cabin shut behind him, as distinctly as I
now hear the waves breaking on the sides of the corvette at this
moment."

"You ought to have run after him."

"I did so."

"Well, did you catch him?"

"No; I was stopped by the watch, for I had nothing on me but my shirt;
the officers stared, the sailors laughed, and the doctor felt my
pulse. But, for all that, I am satisfied there is a mystery
somewhere."

"But, Willis, the thing is altogether improbable."

"Well, look here; Captain Littlestone is either dead or alive, is he
not?"

"Yes," replied Jack, "there can be no medium between these
hypotheses."

"Then all I can say is this, that as sure as I am a living sinner, I
have seen him if he is alive, and, if he is dead, I have seen his
ghost."

"You believe in visitations from the other world then, Willis?"

"I cannot discredit the evidences of my own senses, can I?"

"No, certainly not."

"Besides, this brings to my recollection a similar circumstance that
happened to an old comrade of mine. Sam Walker is as fine a fellow as
ever lived, he sailed with me on board the _Norfolk_, and I know him
to be incapable of telling a falsehood. Though his name is Sam
Walker, we used to call him 'Hot Codlins.'"

"Why, Willis?"

"Because he had an old woman with a child tatooed on his arm, instead
of an anchor, as is usual in the navy."

"A portrait of _Notre Dame de Bon Lecours_, I shouldn't wonder," said
Jack; "but what had that to do with hot codlins: a codlin is a fish,
is it not?"

"I will explain that another time," said Willis, the shadow of a smile
passing over his pale features. "The short and the long of the story
is, that Sam once saw a ghost."

"Well, tell us all about it, Willis."

"But I am afraid you will not believe the story if I do."

"On the contrary, I promise to believe it in advance."

"Very well, Master Jack. Did you ever see a windmill?"

"No, but I know what sort of things they are from description."

"There are none in Scotland," continued Willis; "at least I never saw
one there."

"How do they manage to grind their corn then? There should be oats in
the land o' cakes, at all events," said Jack, with a smile.

"Well, in countries that have plenty of water, they can dispense with
mi