se, Elsie; you
are dreaming, my child!' I said, looking out eagerly to where she
pointed, but could see nothing. `There's no ship there, little one!'
and I felt angry at the false alarm.

"`But, my father, you are wrong,' still insisted the child, as positive
as you please. `I can see the vessel there in the distance quite
plainly. See how the black smoke comes puffing out of the chimneys.'

"I laughed at this.

"`Little darling,' said I, `there was no ship, and there are no
"chimneys" on board ships at sea. Sailors call them funnels, my dearest
one.'

"She pretended to pout on my thus catching her tripping in her talk.

"`Well, my father,' said she, with a shrug of her shoulders, as is her
habit sometimes, `I may be wrong about the chimneys, but I am not wrong
about seeing a ship. Why, my father, there she is now, coming closer
and closer, and quite near; so near that I can see--yes, I can see--I am
quite sure--a big boy there. Look, look, father, dear! There he is in
front of the smoke. He has quite a pleasant face.'

"Elsie turned in my direction as she spoke, and, though I was still
gazing all the while, I could see nothing, and I was vexed, very vexed
with my little girl for her persistency in the matter.

"`Why, it has gone--quite disappeared!' she cried out the instant after,
on rushing to the side and looking over. `What does it mean? Why did
she not come and help if she saw the flag?'

"`You have dreamt it, little one,' I replied shortly, as I had done
before. `It's a freak of the imagination, and you fancied it, you funny
little woman.'

"But it was a curious incident, though, sir, was it not, at such a time,
with our hearts all full of expectancy and hope?"

Captain Applegarth was greatly excited by the narrative, and so, it may
readily be believed, was I.

He asked abruptly, "When did this happen? Tell me, colonel, at once.
It is strange--very so!"

The other looked up with surprise, while Mr Stokes stared at him with
wonder, and the Irishman opened his big blue eyes wide to the full.

"I have already told you, sir," replied Colonel Vereker very quickly.
"As I told you before, it was the seventh of November--last Friday."

"Yes; but I mean what time of the day, sir?"

"Oh, I should think about five o'clock in the afternoon. Perhaps a
little later, as the sun was going down, I recollect, at the time."

I could not restrain my astonishment at this.

"It must be the very ship