f ever they
did do so, they won't do it again in a hurry. What water have you got,
my man? Port there!"

"Port it is."

"Steady--so."

"Shall we get down to the Nore to-night, pilot?" said the captain.

"Why, sir, I'm in hopes we shall. We have still nearly three hours'
daylight; and now that we are clear of the Hope, we shall lay fairly
down Sea Reach; and if the wind will only freshen a little (and it looks
very like it), we shall be able to stem the _first_ of the flood, at all
events."

I ought to observe that Bramble, as soon as he had passed any shoal or
danger, pointed it out to me. He said, "I tell it to you, because you
can't be told too often. You won't recollect much that I tell you, I
dare say. I don't expect it; but you may recollect a little, and every
little helps."

The tide had flowed more than an hour when we passed the Nore Light and
came to an anchor.

"What lights are those?" inquired I.

"That's Sheerness," replied Bramble. "We were talking of the French and
Danes coming up the river. Why, Tom, it is not much more than one
hundred and fifty years ago when the Dutch fleet came up to Sheerness,
destroyed the batteries, and landed troops there. Howsomever, as I said
of the French and the other chaps, they won't do so again in a hurry."

As soon as they had veered out sufficient cable, Bramble accepted the
invitation of the captain to go down in the cabin, when I went and
joined the men, who were getting their supper forward. I was soon on
good terms with them; and, after supper, as it was cold, they went down
to the fore-peak, got out some beer and grog, and we sat round in a
circle, with the bottles and mugs and a farthing candle in the center.
Being right in the _eyes_ of her, as it is termed, we could plainly hear
the water slapping against the bends outside of her, as it was divided
by the keelson, and borne away by the strong flood tide. It was a
melancholy sound. I had never heard it before; and during a pause, as I
listened to it, one of the men observed, "Queer sound, boy, ain't it?
You'd think that the water was lapping in right among us. But noises
aboard ship don't sound as they do on shore; I don't know why." No more
did I at that time; the fact is that nothing conveys sound better than
wood, and every slight noise is magnified, in consequence, on board of a
vessel.

"I recollect when I was on a Mediterranean voyage how we were frightened
with noises, sure enough," observed o