"Anyway, when Williams and I found him, he was hanging by the gasket,
and it had a couple of turns round his wrist. And besides that, as I
said before, the foot of the sail was hanging over the after side of the
yard, and Tom's weight on the gasket was holding it there."
"It's damned queer," said Stubbins, in a puzzled voice. "There don't
seem to be no way of gettin' a proper hexplanation to it."
I glanced at Williams, to suggest that I should tell all that we had
seen; but he shook his head, and, after a moment's thought, it seemed to
me that there was nothing to be gained by so doing. We had no very clear
idea of the thing that had happened, and our half facts and guesses
would only have tended to make the matter appear more grotesque and
unlikely. The only thing to be done was to wait and watch. If we could
only get hold of something tangible, then we might hope to tell all that
we knew, without being made into laughing-stocks.