see peeping over at him with a cynical grin.

"'I dare say,' he began, suddenly, 'you are wondering at my proceedings,
though I am not detaining you, am I? You wouldn't dare to move in this
fog?'

"'I don't know where I am,' the Northman ejaculated, earnestly. 'I
really don't.'

"He looked around as if the very chart-room fittings were strange
to him. The commanding officer asked him whether he had not seen any
unusual objects floating about while he was at sea.

"'Objects! What objects? We were groping blind in the fog for days.'

"'We had a few clear intervals' said the commanding officer. 'And I'll
tell you what we have seen and the conclusion I've come to about it.'

"He told him in a few words. He heard the sound of a sharp breath
indrawn through closed teeth. The Northman with his hand on the table
stood absolutely motionless and dumb. He stood as if thunderstruck. Then
he produced a fatuous smile.

"Or at least so it appeared to the commanding officer. Was this
significant, or of no meaning whatever? He didn't know, he couldn't
tell. All the truth had departed out of the world as if drawn in,
absorbed in this monstrous villainy this man was--or was not--guilty of.

"'Shooting's too good for people that conceive neutrality in this pretty
way,' remarked the commanding officer, after a silence.