When I wrote the word “Amen” on the last page of the second edition of this book, I believed that my task had come to an end. Fate, however, has decreed otherwise; and in view of surrounding circumstances it is absolutely necessary that this (the third) edition should be considerably enlarged. Moreover, to have kept silent with regard to the after-transactions—which hinge on the events already related—would have been, in my estimation, a sort of moral cowardice, displaying a lack of duty to my readers, and also to myself as a faithful chronicler. Having given the above brief remarks by way of preliminary, I now proceed to relate the incidents in the order in which they took place. Mr. Robert Ponting sued Messrs. Huddart, Parker & Co., shipowners, for £500 as damages for loss of health and property caused by, as alleged, the sinking of the S.S. _Alert_ through unsea-worthiness; and on July 26, 1896, law proceedings were commenced in the County Court, Melbourne, before Judge Chomley and a jury of four. Mr. J. Ebsworth, solicitor, conducted the case for the plaintiff, and Messrs. Coldham and Schutt, barristers (instructed by Messrs. Malleson, England & Stewart, solicitors), acted on behalf of the defendants. The trial lasted four or five days, and the evidence on both sides was almost a repetition of that given in the two previous trials of “Kilpatrick _v._ Huddart, Parker & Co.” At the close of the case on Monday, August 3, the jury brought in a verdict in favour of defendants, and accordingly judgment (with costs) was entered against Ponting. In all probability the case would have ended here but for a singular circumstance which ultimately completely altered the position of affairs. It came about thus: I (the present writer) took a good deal of interest in the case and attended the court daily. During the address of Mr. Coldham to the jury—on the Friday prior to the conclusion of the trial—I heard one of the jurymen (McGregor) call out to Mr. Coldham these words, “Your argument is absurd.” I know not whether the judge heard the remark. I only know that he did not rebuke the juryman. After adjourning the case till the ensuing Monday the Court rose, and as I passed out of one of the Little Bourke Street entrances I heard Mr. Coldham remark to Mr. Stewart, as they left the doorway, “I promised to meet him (or them) at Menzies’.” No attention was paid by me to what I deemed a casual remark until a few minutes afterwards, when an acquaintance said to me, “If you want to see Huddart Parker’s barrister and solicitor talking to the jury, just go into the bar of Menzies’ Hotel.”