I looked on to the river and thought of 'im going down on the ebb.
Then I got a sort o' lonesome feeling standing on the end of the jetty
all alone, and I went back to the Bear's Head and 'ad another pint.
They didn't find the body, and I was a'most forgetting about Sam when one
evening, as I was sitting on a box waiting to get my breath back to 'ave
another go at sweeping, Joe Peel, Sam's mate, came on to the wharf to see
me.
He came in a mysterious sort o' way that I didn't like: looking be'ind
'im as though he was afraid of being follered, and speaking in a whisper
as if 'e was afraid of being heard. He wasn't a man I liked, and I was
glad that the watch and chain was stowed safe away in my trowsis-pocket.
"I've 'ad a shock, watchman," he ses.
"Oh!" I ses.
"A shock wot's shook me all up," he ses, working up a shiver. "I've seen
something wot I thought people never could see, and wot I never want to
see agin. I've seen Sam!"
I thought a bit afore I spoke. "Why, I thought he was drownded," I ses.
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