I hope, sir, you will let me regard you as a friend." He evaded my proffered friendship with a blunt proposal to rejoin the mess; and yet a moment later, contrived to alleviate the snub.

For, as we entered the smoking-room, he laid his hand on my shoulder with a kind familiarity.
"I have just prescribed for Mr.Dodd," says he, "a glass of our Madeira." I have never again met Dr.Urquart: but he wrote himself so clear upon my memory that I think I see him still.

And indeed I had cause to remember the man for the sake of his communication.

It was hard enough to make a theory fit the circumstances of the Flying Scud; but one in which the chief actor should stand the least excused, and might retain the esteem or at least the pity of a man like Dr.Urquart, failed me utterly.

Here at least was the end of my discoveries; I learned no more, till I learned all; and my reader has the evidence complete.