You must know that everybody connected in any way with the sea was there, because the affair had been notorious for days, ever since that mysterious cable message came from Aden to start us all cackling.

I say mysterious, because it was so in a sense though it contained a naked fact, about as naked and ugly as a fact can well be.

The whole waterside talked of nothing else.

First thing in the morning as I was dressing in my state-room, I would hear through the bulkhead my Parsee Dubash jabbering about the Patna with the steward, while he drank a cup of tea, by favour, in the pantry.

No sooner on shore I would meet some acquaintance, and the first remark would be, "Did you ever hear of anything to beat this ?" and according to his kind the man would smile cynically, or look sad, or let out a swear or two.