The Nova Scotia Moores investigated , and found she had got to Havana and discharged her cargo and took on another and left for home ; and that was all they ever found out about her . By degrees people began to talk of Dick Moore as one that was dead . Almost everyone believed that he was , though no one felt certain , for men have turned up here at the harbor after they 'd been gone for years . Leslie never thought he was dead -- and she was right . A thousand pities too ! The next summer Captain Jim was in Havana -- that was before he gave up the sea , of course . He thought he 'd poke round a bit -- Captain Jim was always meddlesome , just like a man -- and he went to inquiring round among the sailors ' boarding houses and places like that , to see if he could find out anything about the crew of the Four Sisters . He 'd better have let sleeping dogs lie , in my opinion ! Well , he went to one out-of-the-way place , and there he found a man he knew at first sight it was Dick Moore , though he had a big beard . Captain Jim got it shaved off and then there was no doubt -- Dick Moore it was -- his body at least . His mind was n't there -- as for his soul , in my opinion he never had one ! '' `` What had happened to him ? '' `` Nobody knows the rights of it . All the folks who kept the boarding house could tell was that about a year before they had found him lying on their doorstep one morning in an awful condition -- his head battered to a jelly almost . They supposed he 'd got hurt in some drunken row , and likely that 's the truth of it . They took him in , never thinking he could live . But he did -- and he was just like a child when he got well . He had n't memory or intellect or reason . They tried to find out who he was but they never could . He could n't even tell them his name -- he could only say a few simple words .
He had a letter on him beginning ` Dear Dick ' and signed ` XXXXX , ' but there was no address on it and the envelope was gone .
Havana Jim Leslie Moore Moores first pities right year years