'
"Or soon will be," I remarked. "I noticed him yesterday, a big man
muttering continually to himself?"
"That's the man," Mr. Mellaire said.
"Do you have many such at sea?" I asked.
"More than my share, I do believe, sir."
He was lighting a cigarette at the moment, and with a quick movement
he pulled off his cap, bent his head forward, and held up the blazing
match that I might see.
I saw a grizzled head, the full crown of which was not entirely bald,
but partially covered with a few sparse long hairs. And full across
this crown, disappearing in the thicker fringe above the ears, ran
the most prodigious scar I had ever seen. Because the vision of it
was so fleeting, ere the match blew out, and because of the scar's
very prodigiousness, I may possibly exaggerate, but I could have
sworn that I could lay two fingers deep into the horrid cleft and
that it was fully two fingers broad. There seemed no bone at all,
just a great fissure, a deep valley covered with skin; and I was
confident that the brain pulsed immediately under that skin.
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