Ah!' said Captain Cuttle, vauntingly, 'as much as if he'd gone and knocked his head again a door!' 'Let us take this gentleman to see him, and let us hear what he says,' cried Florence.

'Will you go with us now?
We have a coach here.' Again the Captain clapped his hand to his head, on which the hard glazed hat was not, and looked discomfited.

But at this instant a most remarkable phenomenon occurred.

The door opening, without any note of preparation, and apparently of itself, the hard glazed hat in question skimmed into the room like a bird, and alighted heavily at the Captain's feet.

The door then shut as violently as it had opened, and nothing ensued in explanation of the prodigy.
Captain Cuttle picked up his hat, and having turned it over with a look of interest and welcome, began to polish it on his sleeve' While doing so, the Captain eyed his visitors intently, and said in a low voice, 'You see I should have bore down on Sol Gills yesterday, and this morning, but she--she took it away and kep it.