England.

Presently it occurred to some ingenious person to inquire who had gone
overboard, and all hands being mustered and the roll called, to our
great chagrin every man answered to his name, passengers and all!
Captain Troutbeck, however, held that in a matter of so great importance
a simple roll-call was insufficient, and with an assertion of authority
that was encouraging insisted that every person on board be separately
sworn. The result was the same; nobody was missing and the captain,
begging pardon for having doubted our veracity, retired to his cabin to
avoid further responsibility, but expressed a hope that for the purpose
of having everything properly recorded in the log-book we would apprise
him of any further action that we might think it advisable to take. I
smiled as I remembered that in the interest of the unknown gentleman
whose peril we had overestimated I had flung the log-book over the
ship's side.

Soon afterward I felt suddenly inspired with one of those great ideas
that come to most men only once or twice in a lifetime, and to the
ordinary story teller never. Hastily reconvening the ship's company I
mounted the capstan and thus addressed them:

"Shipmates, there has been a mistake. In the fervor of an ill-considered
compassion we have made pretty free with certain movable property of an
eminent firm of shipowners of Malvern Heights. For this we shall
undoubtedly be called to account if we are ever so fortunate as to drop
anchor in Tottenham Court Road, where I have an aunt. It would add
strength to our defence if we could show to the satisfaction of a jury
of our peers that in heeding the sacred promptings of humanity we had
acted with some small degree of common sense. If, for example, we could