In fact, I never ought to have made the map at all." Mr.Chalk stared at him in speechless dismay.
"Try that," said the captain, handing Mr.Stobell his glass.
Mr.Stobell took it from mere force of habit, and sat holding it in his hand as though he had forgotten what to do with it.
"I did it yesterday morning," said the captain, noticing their consternation.

"I had just lit my pipe after breakfast, and I suppose the match put me in mind of it.

I took out the map and set light to it at Cape Silvio.

The flame ran half-way round the coast and then popped through the middle of the paper and converted Mount Lonesome into a volcano." He gave a boisterous laugh and, raising his glass, nodded to Mr.Stobell.
Mr.Stobell, who was just about to drink, lowered his glass again and frowned.
"I don't see anything to laugh at," he said, deliberately.
"He can't have been listening," said Mr.Tredgold, in a low voice, to Miss Drewitt.
"Well, it's done now," said the captain, genially.

"You--you're not going ?" "Yes, I am," said Mr.Stobell.
He bade them good-night, and then pausing at the door stood and surveyed them; even Mr.Tasker, who was gliding in unobtrusively with a jug of water, shared in his regards.
"When I think of the orphans and widows," he said, bitterly, "I----" He opened the door suddenly and, closing it behind him, breathed the rest to Dialstone Lane.