Dick now thought it was his turn, and made a rally--"Why, Sir Oliver, I am sure that neither Mr Sprawl nor myself would yield, even to you, in regard for him." He shook his head. "Indeed, sir, we both knew the poor boy well; and"--here he plucked up more courage, determined in his own mind apparently that he would clap a stopper on their being ridden rough-shod over in this sort of way--but the commodore, far from showing fight, quietly allowed him to say out his say--"We both knew him well--a finer or a braver lad never stepped; and I fancy, when I say so, I answer not only for Mr Sprawl and myself, but for every man who was with us in this ill-fated expedition. Had his rescue depended on our devoting ourselves, you may rely on it, Sir Oliver, either we should not have been here to tell the story, or _he_ would have been alive to tell his own." The commodore once more lay back on the sofa, covering his face with his hands--"Go on, Mr Lanyard--go on." "Why, sir, he was with us, safe and sound, until we crossed the bar. I heard him sing out, 'a good omen--a good omen!' just as we jammed the Spanish schooner that had waylaid us, right down on the bank, in the very middle of the bar; but from that very instant of time no man in the ship saw or heard any thing of him." The old commodore appeared to be screwing up and gathering all his energies about him. "Never saw him!--what--did he fall overboard? Tell me--tell me--_did_ he fall overboard?" "None of us saw him fall overboard, sir;" said I, desirous of making a diversion in favour of my friends, "but after that moment I never saw him alive." "Alive!" echoed the commodore--"Alive! Did you see him dead, then?" "No, sir, I think with you he must have gone overboard." There was a long and most irksome pause; at length the commodore broke it. "Well, well, Benjamin, it cannot be helped, it cannot be helped." Desirous of preventing another lull in the conversation, I hinted to the commodore that I had been subjected to a very strange delusion of the senses in passing the bar. "Ay, indeed," said he, with a faint smile--"second sight, I presume--your Scotch star has been in the ascendant--but come, tell the whole story at once." "I have told it before to Mr Sprawl, Sir Oliver; but really, on reflection, I have some scruples about recapitulating such nonsense at length again." "Tell it," said Sir Oliver, looking at me with his lack-lustre eye--"tell it." "Then, sir, I will, although I am quite prepared to be laughed at." I made a pause, for, to say the truth, I was really disinclined to say more on the subject, which I now regretted I had broached; but he waited for me. "We had just cleared the bar, sir, when, on looking up, to see how the sail drew, I saw, holding on by the main haulyards, and with his feet spread out on our long lateen yard, a figure between me and the moonlight sky, as like Mr De Walden's as one could fancy any thing." "Pray, did any other person see it?"