'Did they photograph the body?' I exclaimed.
He whipped upon me quickly, struck by my tone, no doubt, and eyed me keenly. He witnessed a change of face, and perhaps a sudden pallor, but took no further notice, lightly saying:
'Yes, the body was photographed, and a couple of the pictures are aboard.'
'In this steamer?'
He again looked at me; then, directing his eyes round the poop, said:
'Do you see that old gentleman sitting in the easy chair near the skylight?'
It was the old gentleman who some days previously had asked Captain Robson at the dinner table what was the action of salt water on a body, to which the north-country skipper had drily answered, 'It drowns.'
'Has that man photographs of the body?' I exclaimed, staring at the old gentleman with nervous tremors running through me, shaking the very voice in my throat, so sudden and unexpected was this.
'I can tell you his story; he makes no secret of it,' said the captain. 'His name's Hoskins; he is Mrs. Ollier's father. He is going to the Cape to make sure that the body's his child by opening the coffin, if the authorities will permit it. But he's in no doubt; he showed me the pictures; the master of the schooner, knowing him very well, sent two by steamer. He says they're the portrait of his girl. She had been stopping at Santiago with her sister, a married woman there; and was bound round to Monte Video to join, or await the arrival of, her husband, who sailed from the Thames in August in command of the ship "York"—what's there in this?—Mr. Moore, I hope this matter——'
He began to stutter, and was full of concern, seeing me suddenly lean against the rail, breathing hard with oppression with a face which I might guess by my emotions alarmed him. But guessing that my agitation would speedily take the eye of the many who were walking or sitting about the deck, I asked, after pausing a minute to recover myself, if I could be alone with him for a little while, on which he at once conducted me to the chart room or some sort of interior dedicated to him as commander, but not a bedroom, furnished with a horsehair couch, a clock, and the several instruments and conveniences for navigating a vessel.