My conclusion, from what I saw and heard, was, that, the artist, by some unaccountable freak of fate, or perhaps in some fit of enthusiastic and fanciful passion, had been induced to unite himself with a person altogether beneath him, and that the natural result, entire and speedy disgust, had ensued.  I pitied him from the bottom of my heart —­ but could not, for that reason, quite forgive his incommunicativeness in the matter of the “Last Supper.”  For this I resolved to have my revenge.

One day he came upon deck, and, taking his arm as had been my wont, I sauntered with him backward and forward.  His gloom, however (which I considered quite natural under the circumstances), seemed entirely unabated.  He said little, and that moodily, and with evident effort.  I ventured a jest or two, and he made a sickening attempt at a smile.  Poor fellow! —­ as I thought of his wife, I wondered that he could have heart to put on even the semblance of mirth.  I determined to commence a series of covert insinuations, or innuendoes, about the oblong box —­ just to let him perceive, gradually, that I was not altogether the butt, or victim, of his little bit of pleasant mystification.  My first observation was by way of opening a masked battery.  I said something about the “peculiar shape of that box-,” and, as I spoke the words, I smiled knowingly, winked, and touched him gently with my forefinger in the ribs.

The manner in which Wyatt received this harmless pleasantry convinced me, at once, that he was mad.  At first he stared at me as if he found it impossible to comprehend the witticism of my remark; but as its point seemed slowly to make its way into his brain, his eyes, in the same proportion, seemed protruding from their sockets.  Then he grew very red —­ then hideously pale —­ then, as if highly amused with what I had insinuated, he began a loud and boisterous laugh, which, to my astonishment, he kept up, with gradually increasing vigor, for ten minutes or more.  In conclusion, he fell flat and heavily upon the deck.  When I ran to uplift him, to all appearance he was dead.

I called assistance, and, with much difficulty, we brought him to himself.  Upon reviving he spoke incoherently for some time.  At length we bled him and put him to bed.  The next morning he was quite recovered, so far as regarded his mere bodily health.  Of his mind I say nothing, of course.  I avoided him during the rest of the passage, by advice of the captain, who seemed to coincide with me altogether in my views of his insanity, but cautioned me to say nothing on this head to any person on board.

Several circumstances occurred immediately after this fit of Wyatt which contributed to heighten the curiosity with which I was already possessed.  Among other things, this:  I had been nervous —­ drank too much strong green tea, and slept ill at night —­ in fact, for two nights I could not be properly said to sleep at all.  Now, my state-room opened into the main cabin, or dining-room,