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Tales Of Hearsay by Joseph Conrad
page 107 of 122 (87%)
lips pursed up, and the horizontal furrows on his forehead marked
very heavily. Now and then raising his arm by a slow, as if cautious
movement, he scratched lightly the top of his bald head. In the mate's
room he stood for long periods of time with his hand to his lips, gazing
at the half-conscious man.

For three days Mr. Bunter did not say a single word. He looked at people
sensibly enough but did not seem to be able to hear any questions put
to him. They cut off some more of his hair and swathed his head in
wet cloths. He took some nourishment, and was made as comfortable as
possible. At dinner on the third day the second mate remarked to the
captain, in connection with the affair:

"These half-round brass plates on the steps of the poop-ladders are
beastly dangerous things!"

"Are they?" retorted Captain Johns, sourly. "It takes more than a brass
plate to account for an able-bodied man crashing down in this fashion
like a felled ox."

The second mate was impressed by that view. There was something in that,
he thought.

"And the weather fine, everything dry, and the ship going along as
steady as a church!" pursued Captain Johns, gruffly.

As Captain Johns continued to look extremely sour, the second mate did
not open his lips any more during the dinner. Captain Johns was annoyed
and hurt by an innocent remark, because the fitting of the aforesaid
brass plates had been done at his suggestion only the voyage before, in
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