“I have met and conversed with him, and I gather from him that personally he is averse to making any claim at all. He considers that his yacht simply performed a duly, and a duly that was imperative upon her captain. To take money from those unfortunate persons who had consigned goods, or bullion in the _Lucca_ he thought would be contrary to every sentiment of honour and humanity. “But, unfortunately, he is not altogether a free agent. It appears that at the time when the salvage of the _Lucca_ was effected, there was on board the yacht a certain Mr Theodore Marese—a cousin of Mr Baskette’s, who is only in moderate circumstances, and naturally looks upon the event as a windfall which may never occur again—as I hope and pray it never will. “Mr Theodore Marese, it seems, performed some personal service in rescuing the _Lucca_, and was considered to have run considerable risk to his life. “A certain sum will have no doubt to be paid to Mr Theodore, and I cannot blame him if he insists upon his right. He was practically the master of the yacht at the time, and it seems was on his way—with Mr Baskette’s permission—to London, to attend to some very urgent business there, which the catastrophe of the _Lucca_ has delayed and greatly injured, causing him pecuniary loss. “Then there is the captain of the yacht, and the crew. It is a fine vessel—some 300 tons or more, I should think—a screw steamer, and very fast. She carries a rather numerous crew, and all these are ravenous for plunder, and it is hard to see how these claims are to be avoided. Still further, it seems that Mr Baskette himself is not altogether a free agent. He freely admitted to me that he was not without his debts—as is probable enough to a man of fashion, with a certain position to maintain. “These creditors may take advantage of the _Lucca_ business to push him, and say that he must take the salvage in order to meet their demands. Of this he is greatly afraid. “Baskette is a most pleasant man, easy to converse with, very open and straightforward—quite a different person to what I should have expected. He has been particularly agreeable to me, promising his best efforts to curtail my loss, and has given me a cabin in his now famous yacht, the _Gloire de Dijon_. “I cannot drive the subject of the salvage from my mind. The saloons, bars, hotels—everywhere people talk of nothing else. It has quite eclipsed the tragedy, as well it might, from the magnitude of the sums involved. “First of all, there is the vessel herself—found upon the high seas, a derelict, without a hand at the wheel or at the engines. She is a splendid steamer, fully 3000 tons, and estimated at half a million of dollars, or, say, 100,000 pounds. The cargo she carried was immensely valuable—the bullion you know about: it was 718,000 pounds in exact figures—but the cargo must be worth at least another 75,000 pounds.