And Bellairs had been eager to go higher! There is no language to express the stupor with which I contemplated this result.
It may be argued we were not yet sure; there might be yet another cache; and you may be certain in that hour of my distress the argument was not forgotten.

There was never a ship more ardently perquested; no stone was left unturned, and no expedient untried; day after day of growing despair, we punched and dug in the brig's vitals, exciting the men with promises and presents; evening after evening Nares and I sat face to face in the narrow cabin, racking our minds for some neglected possibility of search.

I could stake my salvation on the certainty of the result: in all that ship there was nothing left of value but the timber and the copper nails.

So that our case was lamentably plain; we had paid fifty thousand dollars, borne the charges of the schooner, and paid fancy interest on money; and if things went well with us, we might realise fifteen per cent of the first outlay.

We were not merely bankrupt, we were comic bankrupts: a fair butt for jeering in the streets.