Two months were passed in this dull port, and the Stingers began to imagine themselves forgotten, when one morning H.M.S. Squeezer steamed into the harbour, and delivered mails and despatches, by which Captain Puffeigh found himself directed to proceed at once to the Gulf of Pechele, information having been received that one of the Russian ships, which had escaped from the Gulf of Tartary, was cruising off the mouth of the Pei-Ho. No time was lost in getting away from Chickodadi; and two hours after the reception of orders the Stinger was well on her way towards the coast of China. We must do the Japanese the credit of stating, that they did not court the visits of the British ships, and only acted according to time-honoured custom, in refusing to have anything to do with "outside barbarians." As the Stinger was getting up anchor the harbour-master came off with a present of a boat-load of fresh provisions, which Captain Puffeigh courteously accepted, and coolly appropriated to his own use. In the mean while Clare, who had been unwell for some time, at last reluctantly went to the doctor, and that functionary, upon making a strict examination of his case, discovered that he was suffering from disease of the heart, no doubt brought on by the shock his system had sustained when being flogged. One evening Tom was sitting by the fore-hatchway in conversation with Thompson, when he suddenly asked him "if he believed in ghosts?" Jerry, who imagined his shipmate was joking, at first laughed at the question, as he did not believe in any such appearances, and seldom scrupled to ridicule those who affirmed they did; but the serious manner of his companion soon attracted his attention in a way which prevented his taking it lightly. "You laugh! Well, Jerry, believe it or not, I saw Polly a few minutes ago, and she smiled on me and then vanished. This is the sixteenth day of August; I won't forget this day." "You're out of order, old man; it's the physic you're takin' has made you light-headed." "No, I ain't light-headed; I know what I'm about; I say I saw Polly, and _she's dead_," saying which his head dropped, and he remained some time as if buried in deep thought. "Come, come, old man, rouse a bit, Polly's all right; you've got the blues, and are out of sorts; you'll be all right in a day or two." However, when Clare became better he did not lose the impression that his wife was dead, and although he went about his work as before, a great weight was at his heart. Thompson would approach the subject, and try to ascertain if his shipmate were still under the hallucination, but Tom evaded his questions, and almost resented his friend's officiousness.