aid hold of him, I believe he would have
thrown himself overboard. He was carried back to his cabin, and the
doctor was summoned. All Chissel could say was, "Bobby Smudge! Bobby
Smudge! you young villain, be off with you!" The doctor gave him some
stuff or other, and the carpenter went off into a sound sleep; but a man
was ordered to sit up by his side, and watch him.

"Now," thought I, "this has been one of Dicky Sharpe's tricks, and all
my good advice has been thrown away." But when I looked into Dicky's
hammock, he was sleeping away with such unfeigned soundness that I could
scarcely fancy that he had played any trick; and the next morning he
assured me, on his word of honour, that he knew nothing whatever about
the matter. I had never known Dicky to tell an untruth, and I felt very
sure that he would not conceal anything he had done from me; indeed, the
great pleasure he had in playing any mischievous prank was, to tell me
of it afterwards, if I happened not to be a partaker of it,--a very rare
occurrence, by-the-bye.

"Suppose you had played your trick on old Chissel, and what he has seen
was really an evil spirit, how very dreadful it would have been for you
to have met the unnameable thing at his bedside!" said I.

"Oh! don't talk of such a thing," exclaimed Dicky, shuddering. "I am
sure I will never again think of carrying out such a joke as I
contemplated. The idea is too frightful."

I advised him not; and, after talking the subject over, and turning it
in every way, we came to the conclusion that, as no one else was likely
to have tried to frighten old Chissel, if he had not really seen a
ghost, his terror had been the result of his own evil conscience.

"Yes, it is a dreadful thing to have a bad conscience," said Dicky, with
a sigh. "Do you know, D'Arcy, I sometimes wish that I had not played so
many wild pranks in my life. I know that they will some time or other
bring me into trouble; and yet, when the fit seizes me, I cannot help
it. I wish that you would remind me of my good resolutions when I next
propose anything of the sort."

I promised that I would, but suggested that unless he had some higher
motive than the fear of being brought into trouble, he would in all
probability continue as great a pickle as ever, if he did not go on from
bad to worse. Indeed I read my chum a very severe lecture, which he
took with perfect composure, feeling at the time that he fully deserved
it; though I