e now, the one that
was used at the trial. The men read it through before they signed it.

August thirteenth.

This morning, between two-thirty and three o'clock, three murders were
committed on the yacht Ella. At the request of Mrs. Johns, one of the
party on board, I had moved to the after house to sleep, putting my
blanket and pillow in the storeroom and sleeping on the floor there.
Mrs. Johns gave, as her reason, a fear of something going wrong, as
there was trouble between Mr. Turner and the captain. I slept with a
revolver beside me and with the door of the storeroom open.

At some time shortly before three o'clock I wakened with a feeling of
suffocation, and found that the door was closed and locked on the
outside. I suspected a joke among the crew, and set to work with my
pen-knife to unscrew the lock. When I had two screws out, a woman
screamed, and I broke down the door.

As the main cabin was dark, I saw no one and could not tell where the
cry came from. I ran into Mr. Vail's cabin, next the storeroom, and
called him. His door was standing open. I heard him breathing
heavily. Then the breathing stopped. I struck a match, and found him
dead. His head had been crushed in with an axe, the left hand cut off,
and there were gashes on the right shoulder and the abdomen.

I knew the helmsman would be at the wheel, and ran up the after
companionway to him and told him. Then I ran forward and called the
first mate, Mr. Singleton, who was on duty. He had been drinking. I
asked him to call the captain, but he did not. He got his revolver,
and we hurried down the forward companion. The body of the captain was
lying at the foot of the steps, his head on the lowest stair. He had
been killed like Mr. Vail. His cap had been placed over his face.

The mate collapsed on the steps. I found the light switch and turned
it on. There was no one in the cabin or in the chart-room. I ran to
Mr. Turner's room, going through Mr. Vail's and through the bathroom.
Mr. Turner was in bed, fully dressed. I could not rouse him. Like the
mate, he had been drinking.

The mate had roused the crew, and they gathered in the chart-room. I
told them what had happened, and that the murderer must be among us. I
suggested that they stay together, and that they submit to being
searched for weapons.

They went on deck in a body, and I roused the women and told them. Mrs.
Tur