Digital heart book

"And what do you think of that?" I asked.
"Mr. Dodd," he replied, "you see something of the
rumness of this job, but not the whole. The specie
bothers you, but what gets me is the papers. Are you
aware that the master of a ship has charge of all the
cash in hand, pays the men advances, receives freight
and passage-money, and runs up bills in every port? All
this he does as the owner's confidential agent, and his
integrity is proved by his receipted bills. I tell
you, the captain of a ship is more likely to forget his
pants than these bills which guarantee his character.
I've known men drown to save them--bad men, too; but
this is the ship-master's honour. And here this
Captain Trent--not hurried, not threatened with
anything but a free passage in a British man-of-war--
has left them all behind. I don't want to express
myself too strongly, because the facts appear against
me, but the thing is impossible."
Dinner came to us not long after, and we ate it on
deck, in a grim silence, each privately racking his
brain for some solution of the mysteries.


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