“Are you man or woman?”
“That is a question I hardly know how to answer. Sometimes I think myself each; sometimes neither.”
“Did I ever see you before?”
“Often, and quite lately. I sailed with you in your last voyage.”
“You! That cannot be. If so, what is your name?”
“Jack Tier.”
A long pause succeeded this announcement, which induced Spike to muse as intently as his condition would allow, though the truth did not yet flash on his understanding. At length the bewildered man again spoke.
“Are you Jack Tier?” he said slowly, like one who doubted. “Yes—I now see the resemblance, and it was that which puzzled me. Are they so rigid in this hospital that you have been obliged to put on woman's clothes in order to lend me a helping hand?”
“I am dressed as you see, and for good reasons.”
“But Jack Tier run, like that rascal Mulford—ay, I remember now; you were in the boat when I overhauled you all on the reef.”