l. This was John
Newbegin."

HIS SUDDEN DEATH

"As I have already remarked, he died four years ago last April. The
_Mary Emmeline_, one of the little schooners in which he owned, had
returned from the eastward, and had smuggled, or 'run in' a quantity of
St. John brandy. Newbegin had a solitary and protracted debauch. He was
missed from his accustomed walks for several days, and when the
islanders broke into the hovel where he lived, close down to the seaweed
and almost within reach of the incoming tide, they found him dead on the
floor, with an emptied demijohn hard by his head.

"After the primitive custom of the island, they interred John Newbegin's
remains without coroner's inquest, burial certificate, or funeral
services, and in the excitement of a large catch of porgies that summer,
soon forgot him and his friendless life. His interest in the _Mary
Emmeline_ and the _Prettyboat_ recurred to John Hodgeson; and as nobody
came forward to demand an administration of the estate, it was never
administered. The forms of law are but loosely followed in some of these
marginal localities."

HIS REAPPEARANCE AT POCOCK

"Well, my dear ----, four years and four months had brought their quota
of varying seasons to Pocock Island when John Newbegin reappeared under
the following circumstances:

"In the latter part of last August, as you may remember, there was a
heavy gale all along our Atlantic coast. During this storm the squadron
of the Naugatuck Yacht Club, which was returning from a summer cruise as
far as Campobello, was forced to take shelter in the harbor to the
leeward of Pocock Island. The gentlemen of the club spent three days at
the little settlement ashore. Among the party was Mr. R---- E----, by
which name you will recognize a medium of celebrity, and one who has
been particularly successful in materializations. At the desire of his
companions, and to relieve the tedium of their detention, Mr.
E---- improvised a cabinet in the little schoolhouse at Pocock, and gave
a _seance_, to the delight of his fellow yachtsmen and the utter
bewilderment of such natives as were permitted to witness the
manifestations.

"The conditions appeared unusually favorable to spirit appearances and
the _seance_ was upon the whole perhaps the most remarkable that Mr.
E---- ever held. It was all the more remarkable because the surroundings
were such that the most prejudiced skeptic could discover no possibility
of trickery.