side of
England."

"Doctor, could he have done it himself?"

"Oh, heaven, no, sir!" and he explained, by recalling the posture of
the body and the situation of the hands, not to mention the absence of
the weapon, why it was impossible the captain should have killed
himself.

I don't know how it came about; but whilst I paced the deck waiting
for the reports of the mates and the seamen and the passengers who
were helping me in the search, it entered my head to mix up with this
murder the spectre, or ghost, that had frightened the Dane at the
wheel into a fit, along with the memory of a sort of quarrel which I
guessed had happened between Captain Griffiths and Miss Le Grand. It
was a mere muddle of fancies at best, and yet they took a hold of my
imagination. I think it was about a week before this murder that I had
observed the coolness of what you might call a lovers' quarrel betwixt
the captain and his young lady, and without taking any further notice
of it I quietly set the cause down to Mrs. Burney, who, as a
thorough-paced flirt, with fine languishing black eyes, and a saucy
tongue, had often done her best to engage the skipper in one of those
little asides which are as brimstone and the undying worm to the jealous
of either sex. The lovers had made it up soon after, and for two or
three days previously had been as thick and lover-like as sweet-hearts
ought to be.

But what had the ghost that had affrighted the Dane to do with this
murder? And how were Mrs. Burney's blandishments, and the short-lived
quarrel betwixt the lovers to be associated with it? Nevertheless,
these matters ran in my head as I walked the deck on the morning of
that crime, and I thought and thought, scarce knowing, however, in
what direction imagination was heading.

The two mates, the seamen, and the passengers arrived with their
reports. They had nothing to tell. The steward and the stewardess had
searched with the two mates in the saloon or cuddy. Every cabin had
been ransacked, with the willing consent of its occupants. The
forecastle, and 'tween-decks, and steerage, and lazarette had been
minutely overhauled. Every accessible part of the bowels of the ship
had been visited; to no purpose. No stowaway of any sort, no rag of
evidence, or weapon to supply a clue was discovered.

That afternoon we buried the body and I took command of the ship.

I saw nothing of Miss Le Grand for two days. She kept her cabin, and
was seen only by the