cast it down; it was perhaps a minute ere he picked it up again, and the performance was repeated the third time before he reached the end.
“It's touching, isn't it?” said I.
For all answer, Nares exploded in a brutal oath; and it was some half an hour later that he vouchsafed an explanation. “I'll tell you what broke me up about that letter,” said he. “My old man played the fiddle, played it all out of tune: one of the things he played was “Martyrdom,” I remember—it was all martyrdom to me. He was a pig of a father, and I was a pig of a son; but it sort of came over me I would like to hear that fiddle squeak again. Natural,” he added; “I guess we're all beasts.”
“All sons are, I guess,” said I. “I have the same trouble on my conscience: we can shake hands on that.” Which (oddly enough, perhaps) we did.
Amongst the papers we found a considerable sprinkling of photographs; for the most part either of very debonair-looking young ladies or old women of the lodging-house persuasion. But one among them was the means of our crowning discovery.
“They're not pretty, are they, Mr. Dodd?” said Nares, as he passed it over.
“Who?” I asked, mechanically taking the card (it was a quarter-plate) in hand, and smothering a yawn; for the hour was late, the day had been laborious, and I was wearying for bed.
“Trent and Company,” said he. “That's a historic picture of the gang.”
I held it to the light, my curiosity at a low ebb: I had seen Captain Trent once, and had no delight in viewing him again. It was a photograph of the deck of the brig, taken from forward: all in apple-pie order; the hands gathered in the waist, the officers on the poop. At the foot of the card was written “Brig Flying Scud, Rangoon,” and a date; and above or below each individual figure the name had been carefully noted.
