that the steamer was sinking. As far as I could ever learn the first
of it was that George Duff, the bank manager, came very quietly to
Dr. Gallagher and asked him if he thought that the boat was sinking.
The doctor said no, that he had thought so earlier in the day but
that he didn't now think that she was.

After that Duff, according to his own account, had said to Macartney,
the lawyer, that the boat was sinking, and Macartney said that he
doubted it very much.

Then somebody came to Judge Pepperleigh and woke him up and said that
there was six inches of water in the steamer and that she was
sinking. And Pepperleigh said it was perfect scandal and passed the
news on to his wife and she said that they had no business to allow
it and that if the steamer sank that was the last excursion she'd go
on.

So the news went all round the boat and everywhere the people
gathered in groups and talked about it in the angry and excited way
that people have when a steamer is sinking on one of the lakes like
Lake Wissanotti.

Dean Drone, of course, and some others were quieter about it, and
said that one must make allowances and that naturally there were two
sides to everything. But most of them wouldn't listen to reason at
all. I think, perhaps, that some of them were frightened. You see the
last time but one that the steamer had sunk, there had been a man
drowned and it made them nervous.

What? Hadn't I explained about the depth of Lake Wissanotti? I had