I don't seem to understand it;
appears to me like as there was something underneath."
"There was nothing IN it, anyway," I said, with a
forced laugh.
"That's what I want to judge of," returned Jim.
"How the mischief is it I can never keep you to that
bankruptcy? It looks as if you avoided it," said I--for
a man in my situation, with unpardonable folly.
"Don't it look a little as if you were trying to avoid
the wreck?" asked Jim.
It was my own doing; there was no retreat. "My dear
fellow, if you make a point of it, here goes!" said I,
and launched with spurious gaiety into the current of
my tale. I told it with point and spirit; described
the island and the wreck, mimicked Anderson and the
Chinese, maintained the suspense.... My pen has
stumbled on the fatal word. I maintained the suspense
so well that it was never relieved; and when I stopped-
-I dare not say concluded, where there was no
conclusion--I found Jim and Mamie regarding me with
surprise.
"Well?" said Jim.
"Well, that's all," said I.
"But how do you explain it?" he asked.
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