opening it, you may believe him dead. Heaven forbid! But
you would have heard of him, even if he were dead! Someone would have
written, surely, by his desire, if he could not; and have said, "on such
a day, there died in my house," or "under my care," or so forth, "Mr
Solomon Gills of London, who left this last remembrance and this last
request to you".'

The Captain, who had never climbed to such a clear height of probability
before, was greatly impressed by the wide prospect it opened, and
answered, with a thoughtful shake of his head, 'Well said, my lad; wery
well said.'

'I have been thinking of this, or, at least,' said Walter, colouring,
'I have been thinking of one thing and another, all through a sleepless
night, and I cannot believe, Captain Cuttle, but that my Uncle Sol (Lord
bless him!) is alive, and will return. I don't so much wonder at his
going away, because, leaving out of consideration that spice of the
marvellous which was always in his character, and his great affection
for me, before which every other consideration of his life became
nothing, as no one ought to know so well as I who had the best of
fathers in him,'--Walter's voice was indistinct and husky here, and he
looked away, along the street,--'leaving that out of consideration, I
say, I have often read and heard of people who, having some near and
dear relative, who was supposed to be shipwrecked at sea, have gone down
to live on that part of the sea-shore where any tidings of the missing
ship might be expected to arrive, though only an hour or two sooner than
elsewhere, or have even gone upon her track to the place whither she was
bound, as if their going would create intelligence. I think I should do
such a thing myself, as soon as another, or sooner than many, perhaps.
But why my Uncle shouldn't write to you, when he so clearly intended
to do so, or how he should die abroad, and you not know it through some
other hand, I cannot make out.'

Captain Cuttle observed, with a shake of his head, that Jack Bunsby
himself hadn't made it out, and that he was a man as could give a pretty
taut opinion too.

'If my Uncle had been a heedless young man, likely to be entrapped by
jovial company to some drinking-place, where he was to be got rid of for
the sake of what money he might have about him,' said Walter; 'or if he
had been a reckless sailor, going ashore with two or three months' pay
in his pocket, I could understand his disappearing, and leav