I could remain in my cabin no longer. I rushed up to the deck, saw two sailors standing at the post of duty. I spoke a word to them, and then went towards the forecastle alone. The night was as still as death, not a ripple could I see on the waters. I looked around me, and all was smooth, placid sea. I looked upwards and saw a cloudless sky, the full moon was almost as bright as the sun itself, so much so that the stars barely showed themselves. Now and then I could hear the gentle lapping of the water against the vessel's side, but beyond that--nothing. I stood alone, minute after minute, thinking. I could not forget my dream, for such I had forced myself to believe it was, when---- What was it I heard? The cry of a woman! A wail of distress! My heart seemed ready to burst; but I listened. Then I heard words. I heard my own name uttered by a woman' voice! And I was alone on a vessel, with nothing but men on board, hundreds of miles from land, and no other vessel near. "Roger! Roger! where are you?" said the voice. I answered not, I could not, for my tongue clave to the roof of my mouth, but eagerly I listened. "Come to me, Roger! Come to me, or they will kill me!" It was Ruth's voice, carried by the power of God to me. I was wanted home. I was sure of it, yet I could make no answer to what I had heard. For years I had forgotten God, but He had not forgotten me. He had revealed Himself in the voice I had heard. He had carried the message of Ruth's heart to me. I was sure now that there was a God in Heaven, and that He was telling me to frustrate evil. Then something told me that all this was fancy, the result of an excited brain. I had been dreaming, and now I fancied I had heard what only existed in a mind half mad. I rushed to one of the sailors. "Did you hear a woman's voice, just now?" I said. "Woman's voice?" said the man, evidently surprised, "why no, sir!" Had I been mistaken? Was it all delirium? Again I strained my ears, and again I heard the voice. "Come, Roger, I am all alone. Oh come to me!" I answered, but whether articulately or no I cannot say; the words I said in my heart were, "I am coming, Ruth, I am coming." Then it seemed to me that the broad waste of waters reiterated my words, until away in the far distance, where the sea lost itself in the sky, I could hear them repeated "I am coming, Ruth, I am coming." I know that this will seem strange to whoever may read it, but I only speak the truth. Perhaps my sons and my sons' sons may say it was simply the result of an overwrought mind; but I believe otherwise.