I.

In the course of my work last year I had occasion to go over a file of
old Liverpool newspapers, and thus came upon a remarkable paragraph in
the ship news. Translated out of the language of commerce, it was to the
effect that the good ship _Empress_, just arrived from Australia,
reported that while rounding the Cape of Good Hope she had been driven
southward far out of her course by a storm; and that away down in the
Southern Atlantic had sighted a vessel drifting aimlessly about. The
first mate boarded her, and, returning, reported that the derelict was
the ship _Albatross_. That she had been abandoned was plain, for all the
boats were gone, and so were the log and the ship's instruments. On the
deck, close by the companion hatch, lay two bodies, or rather skeletons,
clad in weather-rotted garments, that showed them to have been man and
woman. These bodies were headless, but the heads were nowhere to be
found on the deserted deck. The mate found on the cabin table an open
book, with writing on its pages. A pen lay on the table, and a small
inkstand, in which the ink had evidently long since dried. The book was
evidently a journal or diary, so the mate reported, and he put it in his
pocket, meaning to carry it aboard the _Empress_; but when he was
getting down into his small boat the book slipped from his pocket,
dropped into the water and sunk. The _Albatross_ was badly water-logged,
and, he thought, could not have floated much longer. To this report the
editor of the paper added a note saying that the readers would all
doubtless remember that the _Albatross_ had sailed from Liverpool
several years before, bound for Australia, and it was thought to have
gone down with all on board, as no news of her had since been received.

That was the substance of the remarkable paragraph. What was almost as
remarkable to me, a newspaper man, was that the Liverpool paper had
evidently made no effort to learn the owners of the _Albatross_, the
name of her captain and crew, or whether or not she carried any
passengers. I carefully searched files to see if there was any further
reference to the case. There was none. After the manner of his kind, the
editor of the paper had, so it seemed, taken it for granted that his
intelligent readers "would remember" all the particulars that they
wanted to know.

I was much impressed by the paragraph. My professional instinct told me
that there was a good newspaper story there, and I wa