The amazing
strength, the skill in the use of the harpoon, the rum and
water, the seal-skin tobacco-pouch, with the coarse tobacco --
all these pointed to a seaman, and one who had been a whaler.
I was convinced that the initials `P.C.' upon the pouch were
a coincidence, and not those of Peter Carey, since he seldom
smoked, and no pipe was found in his cabin. You remember that
I asked whether whisky and brandy were in the cabin. You said
they were. How many landsmen are there who would drink rum when
they could get these other spirits? Yes, I was certain it was
a seaman."
"And how did you find him?"
"My dear sir, the problem had become a very simple one. If it
were a seaman, it could only be a seaman who had been with him
on the SEA UNICORN. So far as I could learn he had sailed in no
other ship. I spent three days in wiring to Dundee, and at the
end of that time I had ascertained the names of the crew of the
SEA UNICORN in 1883. When I found Patrick Cairns among the
harpooners my research was nearing its end. I argued that the
man was probably in London, and that he would desire to leave
the country for a time.
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