"'Why,' said I, 'what can you have done that you should have been
haunted? You haven't committed murder, have you?'

"'Well, I don't know what to say,' replied he; 'if a man looks on and
don't prevent murder, is it not the same? I haven't long to live, and I
feel as if I should be happier if I made a clean breast of it; for I
have kept the secret a long while, and I think that you, as a sailor,
and knowing what sailors suffer, may have a fellow-feeling; and perhaps
you will tell me (for I'm somewhat uneasy about it) whether you think
that I am so very much to blame in the business? I've suffered enough
for it these many years, and I trust that it will not be forgotten that
I have so, when I'm called up to be judged--as we all shall, if this
book is true, as I fully believe it to be.'

"Here he appeared to be a good deal upset; but he took a drink of water,
and then he told me as follows:

"'About twenty-three years ago I was a seaman on board of the "William
and Caroline," West Indiaman, bound to Jamaica. We had two or three
passengers on board, and the steward's wife attended upon them. She was
a handsome, tall young woman; and when she and her husband came on
board, they told me they had one child, which they had left at home. Now
Yarmouth, you see, is my native place, and, although I did not know her
husband, I knew her family very well. So we were very intimate, and used
to talk about the people we knew, and so on. I mention this in
consequence of what occurred afterward. We arrived very safe at Jamaica,
and remained, as usual, some time at the island before the drogers
brought round our cargo, and then we again sailed for England.

"'Well, we got clear of the islands, and were getting well north, when