to Williams," I said. "You must understand, Mrs. Turner, that
I cannot take it."

She was a woman of few words, and after a glance at my determined face
she turned to the butler.

"You will have to look after Mr. Turner, Williams. See that he is
comfortable, and try to keep him in bed."

Williams put out a trembling hand, but, before he took the key,
Turner's voice rose petulantly on the other side of the door.

"For God's sake, Wilmer," he cried plaintively, "get out and let me
sleep I haven't slept for a month."

Williams gave a whoop of fear, and ran out of the cabin, crying that
the ship was haunted and that Vail had come back. From that moment, I
believe, the after house was the safest spot on the ship. To my
knowledge, no member of the crew so much as passed it on the starboard
side, where Vail's and Turner's cabins were situated. It was the one
good turn the owner of the Ella did us on that hideous return journey;
for, during most of the sixteen days that it took us to get back, he
lay in his cabin, alternating the wild frenzy of delirium tremens with
quieter moments when he glared at us with crafty, murderous eyes, and
picked incessantly at the bandages that tied him down. Not an instant
did he sleep, that we could discover; and always, day or night, Vail
was with him, and they were quarreling. The four women took care of him
as best they could. For a time they gave him the bromides I prepared,
taking my medical knowledge without question. In the horror of the
situation, curiosity had no place, and class distinctions were
forgotten. That great leveler, a common trouble, put Henrietta Sloane,
the stewardess, and the women of the party at the same table in the
after house, where none ate, and placed the responsibility for the
ship, although, I was nominally in command, on the shoulders of all the
men. And there sprang up among them a sort of esprit de corps, curious
under the circumstances, and partly explained, perhaps, by the belief
that in imprisoning Singleton they had the murderer safely in hand.
What they thought of Turner's possible connection with the crime, I do
not know.

Personally, I was convinced that Turner was guilty. Perhaps, lulled
into a false security by the incarceration of the two men, we
unconsciously relaxed our vigilance. But by the first night the crew
were somewhat calmer. Here and there a pipe was lighted, and a plug of
tobacco went the rounds. The forecastle supper,