"Well, the steamer was 1200 miles from the land--north-northerly course. It was first reported that 1800 lives were lost; afterwards they found out for certain, through the communication with General Wood, that it was only 1300. Mrs. Zelia Smith, she was on the vessel." (Patient's name is Smith.) "She is Commissioner Hodges's daughter. She was counted lost, for instance, and was found alive. I knew her well; I knew a good many other people on that boat." "About how many people did you know?" "Well, I just only remember some. For instance, Major B----; I knew him well, of course. I dare say I knew all the others, but I knew him best. The boat was in charge of E. C. Smith." "Did you know Captain Smith?" "Yes, sir; I knew him. I didn't know him personally; I only made one voyage with him from Angel Island." "When was that?" "In 1907." "What was the name of the wrecked ship?" "I can't recall that, neither; _Tripoli_, I think it was; she is close on 1500 feet long." "How much money was she supposed to be worth?" "I don't know, sir; there were several heirs who had charge of the ship. She was called the sister-ship _Trinic_ and was worth about $25,000. That, perhaps, may not cover her upper-deck cabins." "Did you ever travel on her?" "No, sir; I never was on her. I was on the _Trinic_, the sister-ship. The White Star people own these boats. I used to run a transport between the White Star Line and the Yellow Star Line." Here he was told that the examiner did not know of the existence of a Yellow Star Line, and he replied: "Oh yes, doctor; you heard of the Flying Squadron that reports all these disasters and signals the other ships." Thus we see that with partial truths, with facts only partially and imperfectly recalled as a framework, he builds his fantastic tales. He read the newspapers regularly, but could not even recall the name of the ill-fortuned ship, or any particulars about the accident. But what of that?--he could readily fill in the hiatuses with his fabrication. He failed entirely in the attempt to reproduce the story given him, and used the talk about the _Titanic_ disaster as a subterfuge--as a ready means of escape from the difficulty in which he found himself. He himself threw some light upon the part played by his craving for self-esteem in his statement: "When I tell of all these big things it makes me feel that I'm a little above the common herd of negroes." He unquestionably believes in these tales, if they are real enough to make him feel above the common herd of negroes. His suggestibility was well illustrated by the suggested river at Cambridge, "on the banks of which he sat many a time during his student days."