’There were several questions before the court.  The first as to whether the ship was in every respect fit and seaworthy for the voyage.  The court found she was not.  The next point, I remember, was, whether up to the time of the accident the ship had been navigated with proper and seamanlike care.  They said Yes to that, goodness knows why, and then they declared that there was no evidence to show the exact cause of the accident.  A floating derelict probably.  I myself remember that a Norwegian barque bound out with a cargo of pitch-pine had been given up as missing about that time, and it was just the sort of craft that would capsize in a squall and float bottom up for months—­a kind of maritime ghoul on the prowl to kill ships in the dark.  Such wandering corpses are common enough in the North Atlantic, which is haunted by all the terrors of the sea,—­fogs, icebergs, dead ships bent upon mischief, and long sinister gales that fasten upon one like a vampire till all the strength and the spirit and even hope are gone, and one feels like the empty shell of a man.  But there—­in those seas—­the incident was rare enough to resemble a special arrangement of a malevolent providence, which, unless it had for its object the killing of a donkeyman and the bringing of worse than death upon Jim, appeared an utterly aimless piece of devilry.  This view occurring to me took off my attention.  For a time I was aware of the magistrate’s voice as a sound merely; but in a moment it shaped itself into distinct words . . . “in utter disregard of their plain duty,” it said.  The next sentence escaped me somehow, and then . . . “abandoning in the moment of danger the lives and property confided to their charge” . . . went on the voice evenly, and stopped.  A pair of eyes under the white forehead shot darkly a glance above the edge of the paper.  I looked for Jim hurriedly, as though I had expected him to disappear.  He was very still—­but he was there.  He sat pink and fair and extremely attentive.  “Therefore, . . .” began the voice emphatically.  He stared with parted lips, hanging upon the words of the man behind the desk.  These came out into the stillness wafted on the wind made by the punkahs, and I, watching for their effect upon him, caught only the fragments of official language. . . .  “The Court . . .  Gustav So-and-so . . . master . . . native of Germany . . .  James So-and-so . . . mate . . . certificates cancelled.”  A silence fell.  The magistrate had dropped the paper, and, leaning sideways on the arm of his chair, began to talk with Brierly easily.  People started to move out; others were pushing in, and I also made for the door.  Outside I stood still, and when Jim passed me on his way to the gate, I caught at his arm and detained him.  The look he gave discomposed me, as though I had been responsible for his state he looked at me as if I had been the embodied evil of life.  “It’s all over,” I stammered.  “Yes,” he said thickly.  “And now let no man . . .”  He jerked his arm out of my grasp.  I watched his back as he went away.  It was a long street, and he remained in sight for some time.  He walked rather slow, and straddling his legs a little, as if he had found it difficult to keep a straight line.  Just before I lost him I fancied he staggered a bit.