he saloon stood
wide-open, hooked back to the bulkheads; and here again the bedding was
all in disorder, as though the occupants had leapt hurriedly from the
bunks under the influence of some sudden alarm; trunks and boxes were
standing open--some of them overturned--and their contents scattered all
over the cabin, as though the receptacles had been rummaged in search of
jewellery or money, or both. And the soft white linen sheets that
formed part of the bedding in one of the cabins was deeply and horribly
smeared with scarcely dry blood, with which also the mattress underneath
seemed to be soaked! The captain's cabin--or what I took to be such--
had likewise been rifled, the charts having been taken from the racks,
the chronometer from its padded well in the book-case, and the sextant
had vanished, as well as the ship's papers. But we were able to
ascertain her name and port of registry, for it was engraved upon the
broad brass rim of her steering wheel, and upon her bell: "_Santa
Brigitta_, Santander."

It was evident that there were no living persons on board this fine but
ruthlessly despoiled ship, or if there were, they must be in hiding; and
with the view of testing this latter point I now swung myself down
through the open hatchway leading to the lazarette, believing that that
would be the part of the ship wherein a person might most successfully
hide and evade capture. I was no sooner down in this gloomy receptacle,
devoted to the stowage of the ship's cabin stores, than I saw that it
too had been rummaged, if not actually rifled; but I could detect no
sign indicative of the presence of a person, or persons, in hiding; and
although I shouted until I was hoarse, no sound save the furtive
scurrying of rats reached me by way of reply. But presently, as I stood
listening, and my ears became accustomed to the subdued creaking and
groaning of the vessel's framework and cargo, another sound came to me--
the sound of gurgling, bubbling water; and making my way toward it as
best I could down between the casks and cases that cumbered the place, I
suddenly dropped down into a void, and found water--salt water, surging
and washing to and fro with the movements of the ship, to the height of
my knees. I tried to find the source of the inflow, but I was now down
in the ship's run, standing upon her steeply sloping side, and I
speedily realised that the points of influx were already so far beneath
the surface as to be ent