still and quiet around me, and I descended the bare and shiny
staircase in a silence that enabled me to compose my distracted thoughts. Down
below I met one of the resident surgeons who was crossing the courtyard and
stopped me. Been to see your man, Captain? I think we may let him go to-morrow.
These fools have no notion of taking care of themselves, though. I say, we've
got the chief engineer of that pilgrim ship here. A curious case. D.T.'s of the
worst kind. He has been drinking hard in that Greek's or Italian's grog-shop for
three days. What can you expect? Four bottles of that kind of brandy a day, I am
told. Wonderful, if true. Sheeted with boiler-iron inside, I should think. The
head, ah! the head, of course, gone, but the curious part is there's some sort
of method in his raving. I am trying to find out. Most unusual - that thread of
logic in such a delirium. Traditionally he ought to see snakes, but he doesn't.
Good old tradition's at a discount nowadays. Eh? His - er - visions are
batrachian. Ha! ha! No, seriously, I never remember being so interested in a
case of jim-jams before. He ought to be dead, don't you know, after such a
festive experiment. Oh! he is a tough object. Four-and-twenty years of the
tropics, too. You ought really to take a peep at him. Noble-looking old boozer.
Most extraordinary man I ever met - medically, of course. Won't you?
    I had been all along exhibiting the usual polite signs of interest, but now
assuming an air of regret I murmured of want of time, and shook hands in a
hurry. I say, he cried after me; he can't attend that inquiry. Is his evidence
material, you think?
    Not in the least, I called back from the gateway.«
 

                                  Chapter Six

»The authorities were evidently of the same opinion. The inquiry was not
adjourned. It was held on the appointed day to satisfy the law, and it was well
attended because of its human interest, no doubt. There was no incertitude as to
facts - as to the one material fact, I mean. How the Patna came by her hurt it
was impossible to find out; the court did not expect to find out; and in the
whole audience there