out of the
log-book, and have got it now. I will show it you." Saying this he
went down to his cabin and brought me up the sheet of paper; which I
read, and found it as he had described. "We went on to the Mauritius,
loaded, and returned to England. I had no opportunity of fulfilling my
promise of writing to the captain's wife, so immediately I could leave
the ship I started for Gosport to tell her about his loss.

"I found her house from the address she had given me, and walked once or
twice up and down to consider all I should say to her. It was any way a
difficult thing and one I did not like doing, having to relate the death
of her husband; and besides, women are inclined to think there is always
some neglect in others if an accident happens to those they love. At
last I plucked up courage and knocked at the door. A decent-looking
servant came, and upon my asking if Mrs Wharton were at home, she
replied, `Mrs Wharton don't live here. Mrs Somebody or other lives
here, and she ain't at home.' I asked if she could tell me where, to
find Mrs Wharton, and was informed by the maid that she was a stranger
and knew nothing; but the baker over the way, she thought, could tell
me. I went over and asked the baker's wife, and she informed me that
Mrs Wharton had been dead nearly five months, and her aunt had moved
away. I was thunderstruck at this intelligence, and immediately
inquired the date of her death; she looked over a daybook in the drawer,
and told me. I put it down in my memorandum-book, and when I got back
to the ship I found the date the same as that noted on the leaf of the
log-book as the one that the captain had seen her off the Cape. Now, I
never was superstitious before this, nor am I alarmed now at the idea of
seeing ghosts, but still there is a queer sort of feeling comes over me
when I think of that night.

"When I got home to my friends, I told the clergyman and the doctor what
had been seen. The first explained it to me as an optical delusion, but
acknowledged that it was very curious; the other looked into my eyes as
though he were trying to see some signs of insanity, and told me it was
very likely that the captain's supper had disagreed with him that night,
or that he was half-seas-over.

"Now, I haven't much learning myself, but I do despise what I have seen
called science; men who study books only, can't know so much as those
who see the real things; I haven't patience with men who, n