so away they went together.  Well, there was a great hurry in manning the boat, and picking up poor Jim and the handspike; but the cat we saw no more, for it was just dark at the time.  Well, when it was all over, we began to think what we had done, and as soon as we had put on the hatches and secured the hold we went down below into the fore-peak, where the smell of brimstone did not make us feel more comfortable, I can tell you, and we began to talk over the matter, for you see the cat should not have been thrown overboard but put on shore.  But we were called away to man the boat again, for the fellow had come to his senses, and swore that he would not stay in the ship, but go on shore and take the law of the first mate; and the first mate and captain thought the sooner he was out of the ship the better, for we were to sail before daylight, and there might not be a wherry for him to get into.  So the fellow took his kit, and we pulled him on shore and landed him on Southsea beach, he swearing vengeance the whole way; and as he stepped out on the beach he turned round to us and said, as he shook his fist, ’You’ve thrown overboard a black tom cat, recollect that! and now you’ll see the consequence; a pleasant voyage to you.  I wouldn’t sail in that vessel if you were to offer her to me as a present as soon as she got to Smyrna; because why, you’ve thrown overboard a black tom cat, and you’ll never get there—­never!’ cried he again, and off he ran with his bundle.

“Well, we didn’t much like it, and if the second mate hadn’t been in the boat, I’m not sure that we shouldn’t all have gone on shore rather than sail in the vessel; but there was no help for it.  The next morning before daylight we started, for the captain wouldn’t wait to get another hand, and we were soon out of soundings, and well into the Bay of Biscay.

“We had just passed Cape Finisterre, when Jim, the cabin-boy, says one morning, ’I’m blessed if I didn’t hear that cat last night, or the ghost on it!’ So we laughed at him; for, you see, he slept abaft, just outside the cabin door, close to the pantry, and not forward with the rest of us.

“‘Well,’ says he, ’I heard her miaw, and when I awoke I think I seed two eyes looking at me.’

“‘Well, Jim,’ said I, for we had got over our fears, ’it was you who knocked her overboard, so it’s all right that she should haunt you and nobody else.’  Jim, however, could not laugh, but looked very grave and unhappy.  A few days afterward the captain and passenger complained that they could not sleep for the noise and racket that was kept up all night between the timbers and in the run aft.  They said it was if a whole legion of devils were broken loose and scampering about; and the captain was very grave; and as for the passenger, he was frightened out of his wits.  Still we laughed, because we had heard nothing ourselves, and thought that it must only be fancy on their parts, particularly as the captain used to bowse his jib up pretty taut every night.  Well, all went on very well; we arrived at the Rock, got our fresh provisions and vegetables, and then made sail again.  The captain complained of no more noises, and Jim of no more eyes, and the whole matter was almost forgotten.”