d deal of egg-flip that night, and next day ate
solid food; but they questioned him in vain; his reason was entirely in
abeyance: he had become an eater, and nothing else. Whenever they gave
him food, he showed a sort of fawning animal gratitude. Other sentiment
he had none, nor did words enter his mind any more than a bird's. And
since it is not pleasant to dwell on the wreck of a fine understanding,
I will only say that they landed him at Cape Town, out of bodily danger,
but weak, and his mind, to all appearance, a hopeless blank.

They buried the skeleton,--read the service of the English Church over a
Malabar heathen.

Dodd took Staines to the hospital, and left twenty pounds with the
governor of it to cure him. But he deposited Staines's money and jewels
with a friendly banker, and begged that the principal cashier might see
the man, and be able to recognize him, should he apply for his own.

The cashier came and examined him, and also the ruby ring on his
finger--a parting gift from Rosa--and remarked this was a new way of
doing business.

"Why, it is the only one, sir," said Dodd. "How can we give you his
signature? He is not in his right mind."

"Nor never will be."

"Don't say that, sir. Let us hope for the best, poor fellow."

Having made these provisions, the worthy captain weighed anchor, with a
warm heart and a good conscience. Yet the image of the man he had saved
pursued him, and he resolved to look after him next time he should coal
at Cape Town, homeward bound.

Staines recovered his strength in about two months; but his mind
returned in fragments, and very slowly. For a long, long time he
remembered nothing that had preceded his great calamity. His mind
started afresh, aided only by certain fixed habits; for instance, he
could read and write: but, strange as it may appear, he had no idea who
he was; and when his memory cleared a little on that head, he thought
his surname was Christie, but he was not sure.

Nevertheless, the presiding physician discovered in him a certain
progress of intelligence, which gave him great hopes. In the fifth
month, having shown a marked interest in the other sick patients,
coupled with a disposition to be careful and attentive, they made him a
nurse, or rather a sub-nurse under the special orders of a responsible
nurse. I really believe it was done at first to avoid the alternative
of sending him adrift, or transferring him to the insane ward of the
hospital. In