Across the water came the monosyllable, “Ho!” and back I shouted, “Hallo!”

Then came these words, as clear and distinct as any I ever heard in my life:  “Are you Mr. Rockwell?”

This question almost took away my senses.  Was this reality? or had a spirit risen from this lonely ocean to summon me somewhere?  Was this the way people died?  Rockwell?  Yes, my name was Rockwell.  At least it had been.  I was sure of nothing now.

Again came the voice across the sea.  “Why don’t you answer?” it said.

I raised my trumpet to my lips.  At first I could make no sound, but, controlling my agitation a little, I shouted:  “Yes!”

Instantly the woman disappeared, and for ten minutes I saw her no more.  During that time I did nothing but stand and look at the steamer, which was moving more slowly than before, for the reason that the wind was dying away.  She was now, however, nearly opposite me, and so near that if the wind should cease entirely, conversation might be held without the aid of trumpets.  I earnestly hoped this might be the case, for I had now recovered the possession of my senses, and greatly desired to hear the natural voice of that young woman on the steamer.

As soon as she reappeared I made a trial of the power of my voice.  Laying down the trumpet I shouted:  “Who are you?”

Back came the answer, clear, high, and perfectly audible:  “I am Mary Phillips.”

Mary Phillips! it seemed to me that I remembered the name.  I was certainly familiar with the erect attitude, and I fancied I recognized the features of the speaker.  But this was all; I could not place her.

Before I could say anything she hailed again:  “Don’t you remember me?” she cried, “I lived in Forty-second Street.”

The middle of a wild and desolate ocean and a voice from Forty-second Street!  What manner of conjecture was this?  I clasped my head in my hands and tried to think.  Suddenly a memory came to me:  a wild, surging, raging memory.

“With what person did you live in Forty-second Street?” I yelled across the water.

“Miss Bertha Nugent,” she replied.

A fire seemed to blaze within me.  Standing on tiptoe I fairly screamed:  “Bertha Nugent!  Where is she?”

The answer came back:  “Here!” And when I heard it my legs gave way beneath me and I fell to the deck.  I must have remained for some minutes half lying, half seated, on the deck.  I was nearly stupefied by the statement I had heard.

I will now say a few words concerning Miss Bertha Nugent.  She was a lady whom I had known well in New York, and who, for more than a year, I had loved well, although I never told her so.  Whether or not she suspected my passion was a question about which I had never been able to satisfy myself.  Sometimes I had one opinion; sometimes another.  Before I had taken any steps to assure myself positively in regard to this point, Miss Nugent went abroad with a party of friends, and for eight months I had neither seen nor heard from her.