"How—where?" cried the old man, breathlessly.
"In my dreams or reveries, I know not which, it has floated often, shrouded as it is now, impalpable, a phantom of spars and fog."
"And you have seen this?"
"No, not with my eyes; it comes across my life like a ghost whose presence fills you with awe, but answers to no sense."
"Like a ghost which you would fain flee from and cannot. Is it thus the spirit deals with you also?"
"Nay, I would not flee, it arouses my courage. Even now my heart leaps toward yon vessel as if some precious thing lay in its hold which no one but myself may dare to claim."
"This is strange—marvellously strange," said the minister, forgetting himself in the enthusiasm of the young man.
"What is strange?"
"That we two should meet here for the first time in our lives, haunted by the same dreams, waiting together for the same revelation. Heaven forbid that this should prove a device of the evil one urging us on to perdition. I trust that you have not come forth without fasting and prayer, my young brother, for of a verity there is great need of both in these latter days."
The youth smiled, for solemn thoughts made but brief impressions on him, and the idea of quenching any one of his bright fancies by fasting or prayer amused him exceedingly, notwithstanding the earnestness of the old man's words.