The matter grew too technical for me. There was cargo jettisoned, and ballast tanks emptied aft. The stern of the Torrington was lifted so that her propeller at intervals was clear. Ferguson then went overside on life-lines. When he was not submerged, he was trying to put his ship right again; and when he became exhausted, one of his colleagues took his place, to see whether, while escaping drowning, he could continue the work of salvation. They all escaped, and the Torrington put back to Tampa for repairs, which her own engineers accomplished.
The demonstration was over, and Ferguson's story was lapsing into general gossip. The party of men began to dissolve.
"Who do you think I saw at Tampa?" Ferguson asked Macandrew. "Old Purdy."
"What?" cried Macandrew. "Is he alive?"
Ferguson laughed. "Just about. What's he been doing? I thought he had chucked the sea. It was in the Customs Office. I'd been there to make a declaration, and in one of those long corridors there he stood, all alone, with his hat in his hand, perhaps cooling his head. I hardly knew him. He's more miserable than ever."
"Did he say anything?" asked Macandrew.
"About as much as usual. I didn't know him at first. He seemed rather ill. The temples of that high forehead of his were knotted with veins. It nearly gave me a headache to look at him."
Several of us were impelled to ask a number of questions, but Ferguson was listening now, with the detachment of youth, to the end of a bawdy story that two men were laughing over. This had already displaced Purdy in his mind.
"Didn't he say anything at all? Didn't he mention Hanson?" we asked
Ferguson.
"Eh? What, old Purdy? I don't think so. I don't remember. Now you mention it, I think I did hear somewhere that Hanson was with Purdy. But I don't believe he said anything about him. I was just going to ask him to come and have a drink, when he said good-bye. All I know is I saw him standing there like a sorrowful saint. Then he walked off slowly down the corridor. He's a sociable beggar. I couldn't help laughing at him."