Captain Shannon by Coulson Kernahan

When I look back upon that moment I find myself wondering at the singular effect which the discovery of the dead man's identity had upon my nerves. It turned them in a second's space from quivering and twitching strings to cords of iron. It acted upon the brain as a cold douche acts upon the body. It was as if a man had staggered heavy with drink to a pump, and after once dipping his head under the tap had come up perfectly sober. And the mental effect was equally curious. I do not think I am in the general way unsympathetic, or indifferent to the misfortunes of others, but on this occasion I found myself as coldly calculating the possible advantages and disadvantages to myself of Green's untimely end as if I had been a housewife reckoning up what she had made or lost by the sale of eggs.

My first procedure was to secure the piece of paper which I had found in the bottle. "I may want Captain Shannon's autograph one of these days," I said to myself, "and even were it not so I should be unwise to leave this document upon the scene. If, when the body is found, it is believed that Green was drowned by misadventure there is less chance of awkward questions being asked and inconvenient inquiries made. Such inquiries might bring to light the fact that he was engaged, by my directions, in investigating Mullen's antecedents, and the matter might come to the ears of Mullen himself.