Rapidly adopting the very line of tactics they
had just been so severely censuring, they simply denied the whole thing.
What! the truth of the Bloomsbury dispatch? Yes, every word of it! Had
not Bloomsbury seen the Projectile? No! Were not his eyes good for
anything? Yes, but not for everything! Did not the Captain know his
business? No! Did they mean to say that the bowsprit of the
_Susquehanna_ had not been broken off? Well, not exactly that, but those
naval gentlemen are not always to be trusted; after a pleasant little
supper, they often see the wrong light-house, or, what is worse, in
their desire to shield their negligence from censure, they dodge the
blame by trying to show that the accident was unavoidable. The
_Susquehanna's_ bowsprit had been snapped off, in all probability, by
some sudden squall, or, what was still more likely, some little aerolite
had struck it and frightened the crew into fits. When answers of this
kind did not lead to blows, the case was an exceptional one indeed. The
contestants were so numerous and so excited that the police at last
began to think of letting them fight it out without any interference.
Marshal O'Kane, though ably assisted by his 12 officers and 500
patrolmen, had a terrible time of it.
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