y leaped from his berth and followed the startled cabin-boy,
who shook him roughly.

"Come down, sir! THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG!" the boy babbled. "Get
Doctor Atwater, instantly!" cried McNerney, as he rushed down into
the ship's hold.

One glance at the guarded door was sufficient.

One of the careless keepers was clamoring for admittance, while
the other bent over a rigid form lying there, prone and ghastly,
in the gray morning light stealing in at the little porthole.

"It happened while I was out at breakfast," pleaded the unfaithful
watcher, whom McNerney roughly cast aside.

Atwater was at McNerney's elbow when the frightened inmate had
unlocked the door of the strong room. One shake of the recumbent
form told the story. "He has cheated the executioner," solemnly
said Atwater, letting the lifeless hand fall heavily from his grasp.

"He lay that way all the while since your last visit," said the
sullen derelict keeper.

A hasty search of the cell showed an empty vial. "Chloral! Here is
the key to the mystery!" cried Atwater, examining the coat, flung
aside when the body was lifted. "See this torn sleeve! The murderer
had hidden the bottle of poison here in the thick breast-wadding
of the coat under the coat-sleeve. He waited coolly for the deed
till the last night before our landing."

Atwater again inhaled the odor of the narcotic. "Chloral, sure
enough!" he slowly said. "A two-ounce vial, and probably mingled
with some more deadly poison! Probably the 'knock-out drops' the
wretch used formerly to peddle to convicts!"

An hour later a circle of astonished police officials stood around
the corpse of the crafty criminal who had passed beyond man's
jurisdiction. "A desperate wretch," said the chief of detectives.
"Fritz Braun, the mysterious druggist. He was prepared for the
worst!"

With a quick sagacity, Doctor Atwater had concealed the press
news of the desperate wretch's suicide, having in mind the final
punishment of Lilienthal and Timmins. It was decided by the
police officials to keep the news of the recovery of the fortune an
official secret until all the crafty Baltic smuggling gang should
all be apprehended.

In Irma Gluyas' cabin, Leah Einstein had divulged the whole details
of the cowardly crime, as she had worked them out. It was to Doctor
Atwater alone that Leah freely unbosomed herself.

In return for the Doctor's pledge, now given, to save the precocious
Emil, the timorous Leah g