Its object was not the fundamental why, but the superficial how, of this affair.
'The young chap could have told them, and, though that very thing was the thing that interested the audience, the questions put to him necessarily led him away from what to me, for instance, would have been the only truth worth knowing.

You can't expect the constituted authorities to inquire into the state of a man's soul--or is it only of his liver?
Their business was to come down upon the consequences, and frankly, a casual police magistrate and two nautical assessors are not much good for anything else.

I don't mean to imply these fellows were stupid.

The magistrate was very patient.

One of the assessors was a sailing-ship skipper with a reddish beard, and of a pious disposition.
Brierly was the other.