," faltered the agonised captain after a long pause. "My lads--"
He stopped and swallowed something in his throat. "I've been and brought
away the wrong ship," he continued with an effort; "that's what I've
done. I must have been bewitched."

"Well, who's having the little game now?" inquired a voice.

"Somebody else'll be sacked as well as the mate," said another.

"We must take her back," said the captain, raising his voice to drown
these mutterings. "Stand by there!"

The bewildered crew went to their posts, the captain gave his orders in
a voice which had never been so subdued and mellow since it broke at
the age of fourteen, and the Mary Ann took in sail, and, dropping her
anchor, waited patiently for the turning of the tide.

* * * * * * *

The church bells in Wapping and Rotherhithe were just striking the hour
of mid-day, though they were heard by few above the noisy din of workers
on wharves and ships, as a short stout captain, and a mate with red
whiskers and a pimply nose, stood up in a waterman's boat in the centre
of the river, and gazed at each other in blank astonishment.

"She's gone, clean gone!" murmured the bewildered captain.

"Clean as a whistle," said the mate. "The new hands must ha' run away
with her."

Then the bereaved captain raised his voice, and pronounced a pathetic
and beautiful eulogy upon the departed vessel, somewhat marred by
an appendix in which he consigned the new hands, their heirs, and
descendants, to everlasting perdition.

"Ahoy!" said the waterman, who was getting tired of the business,
addressing a grimy-looking seaman hanging meditatively over the side of
a schooner. "Where's the Mary Ann?"

"Went away at half-past one this morning," was the reply.

"'Cos here's the cap'n an' the mate," said the waterman, indicating the
forlorn couple with a bob of his head.

"My eyes!" said the man, "I s'pose the cook's in charge then. We was to
have gone too, but our old man hasn't turned up."

Quickly the news spread amongst the craft in the tier, and many and
various were the suggestions shouted to the bewildered couple from the
different decks. At last, just as the captain had ordered the waterman
to return to the shore, he was startled by a loud cry from the mate.

"Look there!" he shouted.

The captain looked. Fifty or sixty yards away, a small
shamefaced-looking schooner, so it appeared to his excited imagination,
was slowly approaching them. A mi