"I have, captain; and it is in my own handwriting," replied the officer
addressed.
"Produce it, if you please."
He had placed his valise in the gangway, and he had not far to go to
procure the report, his first draft of the document, which he had
revised and copied at Bonnydale.
"I don't think we are getting ahead at all, Mr. Salisbury," said the
captain, while the cousins were looking for their reports.
"I confess that I am as much in the dark as I was in the beginning,"
replied the executive officer.
"I can make nothing of it," added the surgeon. "It looks to me as though
the commission alone would have to settle this matter."
"I don't see how I can go behind the official documents," replied the
commander as Corny presented himself at the door.
A minute later Christy appeared with his report in his hand, and both
of them were presented to the captain. The handwriting was as different
as possible in the two papers. Corny's was in a large, coarse hand, but
it was a fair copy, while Christy's contained several corrections and
inter-lineations. No one could recognize the writing of either of the
claimants, and the documents proved nothing at all. The captain was
evidently weary of the investigation, and nothing but the commission
seemed to throw any reliable light upon the claim of either one or the
other.
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