m.

The facts, as far as known, were these. Mr. Richard Martin, a Londoner
by birth, but residing in Wales, went up to London to visit his brother.
Toward the end of the visit the two Martins went up the river in a boat,
with three more friends, and dined at Richmond. They rowed back in
the cool of the evening. At starting they were merely jovial; but they
stopped at nearly all the public-houses by the water-side, and, by
visible gradations, became jolly--uproarious--sang songs--caught crabs.
At Vauxhall they got a friendly warning, and laughed at it: under
Southwark bridge they ran against an abutment, and were upset in a
moment: it was now dusk, and, according to their own account, they all
lost sight of each other in the water. One swam ashore in Middlesex,
another in Surrey, a third got to the chains of a barge, and was taken
up much exhausted, and Robert Martin laid hold of the buttress itself,
and cried loudly for assistance. They asked anxiously after each other,
but their anxiety appeared to subside in an hour or two, when they found
there was nobody missing but Richard Martin. Robert told the police it
was all right, Dick could swim like a cork. However, next morning he
came with a sorrowful face to say his brother had not reappeared, and
begged them to drag the river. This was done, and a body found, which
the survivors and Mrs. Richard Martin disowned.

The insurance office was informed, and looked into the matter; and Mrs.
Martin told their agent, with a flood of tears, she believed her husband
had taken that opportunity to desert her, and was not drowned at all. Of
course this went to the office directly.

But a fortnight afterward a body was found in the water down at
Woolwich, entangled in some rushes by the water-side.

Notice was given to all the survivors.

The friends of Robert Martin came, and said the clothes resembled those
worn by Richard Martin; but beyond that they could not be positive.

But, when the wife came, she recognized the body at once.

The brother agreed with her, but, on account of the bloated and
discolored condition of the face, asked to have the teeth examined:
his poor brother, he said, had a front tooth broken short in two. This
broken tooth was soon found; also a pencil-case, and a key, in the
pocket of the deceased. These completed the identification.

Up to this moment the conduct of Richard Martin's relatives and friends
had been singularly apathetic; but now all was