s eyes fixed on
the deck, apparently in a brown study.

A few days after the narration of Blanche's story, Lance Evelin,
noticing Bob at the wheel, strolled up to him and asked him for his
history.

"Miss Lascelles gave me the outlines of it a night or two ago, and it
struck me as so peculiar and interesting that I should like to hear full
particulars," he explained, puffing lazily at his cigar meanwhile.

"Where would you like me to begin, Mr Evelin?" asked Bob.

"At the beginning of course, my dear fellow," laughingly answered Lance.
"I want to know _everything_. Do you remember being found on board the
wreck?"

"Sometimes I think I do; and at other times I think it must be only the
recollection of a dream which has produced a more than usually strong
impression upon me," answered Bob. "Now and then--perhaps not more than
half a dozen times altogether--when I have been lying half asleep and
half awake, a confused and indistinct idea presents itself of a ship's
cabin seen through a half-opened state-room door, with a lamp swinging
violently to and fro; of a woman's face, beautiful as--oh! I cannot
describe it; something like Miss Dudley's, only still more beautiful, if
you can imagine such a thing. Then the dream, or whatever it is, gets
still more confused; I seem to be in cold and wet and darkness, and I
fancy I hear a sound like men shouting, mingled with the roar of the
wind and the rush of the sea; then--then--I seem to have been kissed--
yes--and the beautiful face seems to be bending over me again, but I am
in the light and the warmth once more; and--then it all passes away; and
if I try to carry my thoughts back to the first circumstance which I can
distinctly remember, I see myself again with other boys, paddling about
barefoot on the shore at Brightlingsea."

"Ah!" ejaculated Lance, contemplatively. "I have no doubt but that--if
the truth could be arrived at, which of course it never can be in this
world--this dream, or whatever you like to call it, is the faint
recollection which still remains impressed on your memory of some of the
incidents connected with the wreck of your ship--what was her name, by
the by? The _Lightning_, of London! Um; that's not a very difficult
name to remember, at all events. And the beautiful face of which you
spoke--is your impression of it clear enough to enable you to describe
it? Or, supposing it possible for you to see a picture of the original,
do you think yo