"Now, let us see how the event occurred, that dark night off the coast of Portland Bight, three years ago," Mr. MacDougall said in the relative silence, after the crowd had settled down once more. He waved to his clerk, Mr. Sadler, and another assistant, who stood up the easel and hung the bed sheet-sized roll of cloth upon the cross-piece, allowing it to fall open.

Wonder what that cost? Lewrie thought, shifting in his chair in the dock to look at it. MacDougall had gone to a chart maker's for an up-to-date map of that section of coast, compared the new one to the old one that Proteus's Sailing Master, Mr. Winwood, had used, and had an artist or sign painter do up a large-scale version in full colour; pale blue wash for ocean, rocky shoals in grey, sand bars in tan, and land in pale green, with forests and fields done in a darker green. A topographic map of the plantations in question surely must have come from Jamaica, as well, for the Beaumans', and Cashman's, plantings were delineated quite accurately, right down to the locations of the houses, barns, and slave quarters; all of them neatly labelled, as was the beach where the ship's boats had grounded; and all distances from specific points clearly marked, corresponding to a distance scale in the lower left corner.

"At this point, my lord, I call Lieutenant Adair to testify," MacDougall intoned, going all solemn, now that he was at the meat of the matter.

MacDougall worked his way down through the Commission officers to Mr. Winwood, and the Purser, Mr. Coote, showing how the "crime" was committed. Sir George Norman sat mum at his table through it all, a befuddled and seemingly disinterested air about him. Under English Common Law, he had no right to cross-examine witnesses, and, with no witnesses of his own to present in rebuttal, his continued presence was merely decorative.

Yet MacDougall did not stick to the distances, the times, or the particular actions that Lewrie's juniors had performed that night; to Lt. Adair, he posed the question of what he heard and saw on shore.