From simple causes great events do spring. The skipper sprang four
yards, and let off a screech which was the subject of much comment on
the barque which had just passed. When Bob, who came shuffling up at
the double, reached him he was leaning against the side, incapable of
speech, and shaking all over.

"Anything wrong, sir?" inquired the seaman anxiously, as he ran to the
wheel.

The skipper pulled himself together a bit, and got closer to his
companion.

"Believe me or not, Bob," he said at length, in trembling accents, "just
as you please, but the ghost of that--cat, I mean the ghost of that poor
affectionate animal which I drowned, and which I wish I hadn't, came and
rubbed itself up against my leg."

"Which leg?" inquired Bob, who was ever careful about details.

"What the blazes does it matter which leg?" demanded the skipper, whose
nerves were in a terrible state. "Ah, look--look there!"

The seaman followed his outstretched finger, and his heart failed him as
he saw the cat, with its back arched, gingerly picking its way along the
side of the vessel.

"I can't see nothing," he said doggedly.

"I don't suppose you can, Bob," said the skipper in a melancholy voice,
as the cat vanished in the bows; "it's evidently only meant for me to
see. What it means I don't know. I'm going down to turn in. I ain't fit
for duty. You don't mind being left alone till the mate comes up, do
you?"

"I ain't afraid," said Bob.

His superior officer disappeared below, and, shaking the sleepy mate,
who protested strongly against the proceedings, narrated in trembling
tones his horrible experiences.

"If I were you "--said the mate.

"Yes?" said the skipper, waiting a bit. Then he shook him again,
roughly.

"What were you going to say?" he inquired.

"Say?" said the mate, rubbing his eyes. "Nothing."

"About the cat?" suggested the skipper.

"Cat?" said the mate, nestling lovingly down in the blankets again.
"Wha' ca'--goo' ni'"--

Then the skipper drew the blankets from the mate's sleepy clutches, and,
rolling him backwards and forwards in the bunk, patiently explained to
him that he was very unwell, that he was going to have a drop of whiskey
neat, and turn in, and that he, the mate, was to take the watch. From
this moment the joke lost much of its savour for the mate.

"You can have a nip too, Dick," said the skipper, proffering him the
whiskey, as the other sullenly dressed himself.

"It's all rot," said t