had not
gone down and every soul on board, leastways of her passengers, with
her. 'Master,' said I, in answer, 'had that ship not gone down and all
her passengers with her, rely upon it, they'd have turned up long before
this.' 'Ay, ay,' stormed he, 'and Caroline's a fool'--Which of course
meant his sister, you know, sir."

Philip Hamlyn could not make much of this. So many years had elapsed now
since news came out to the world that the unfortunate ship, _Clipper of
the Seas_, went down off the coast of Spain on her homeward voyage, and
all her passengers with her, as to be a fact of the past. Never a doubt
had been cast upon any part of the tidings, so far as he knew.

With an uneasy feeling at his heart, he went off to the city, to call
upon the brokers, or agents, of the ship: remembering quite well who
they were, and that they lived in Fenchurch Street. An elderly man,
clerk in the house for many years, and now a partner, received him.

"The _Clipper of the Seas_?" repeated the old gentleman, after listening
to what Mr. Hamlyn had to say. "No, sir, we don't know that any of her
passengers were saved; always supposed they were not. But lately we have
had some little cause to doubt whether one or two might not have been."

Philip Hamlyn's heart beat faster.

"Will you tell me why you think this?"

"It isn't that we think it; at best 'tis but a doubt," was the reply.
"One of our own ships, getting in last month from Madras, had a sailor
on board who chanced to remark to me, when he was up here getting his
pay, that it was not the first time he had served in our employ: he had
been in that ship that was lost, the _Clipper of the Seas_. And he went
on to say, in answer to a remark of mine about all the passengers having
been lost, that that was not quite correct, for that one of them had
certainly been saved--a lady or a nurse, he didn't know which, and also
a little child that she was in charge of. He was positive about it, he
added, upon my expressing my doubts, for they got to shore in the same
small boat that he did."

"Is it true, think you?" gasped Mr. Hamlyn.

"Sir, we are inclined to think it is not true," emphatically spoke the
old gentleman. "Upon inquiring about this man's character, we found that
he is given to drinking, so that what he says cannot always be relied
upon. Again, it seems next to an impossibility that if any passenger
were saved we should not have heard of it. Altogether we feel incline