gasped: "Call the
captain! Vail's been murdered!

"Good God!" he said. "Who did it?" He had taken the wheel again, and
was bringing the ship back to her course. I was turning sick and
dizzy, and I clutched at the railing of the companionway.

"I don't know. Where's the captain?"

"The mate's around." He raised his voice. "Mr. Singleton!" he called.

There was no time to lose, I felt. My nausea had left me. I ran
forward to where I could dimly see Singleton looking in my direction.

"Singleton! Quick!" I called. "Bring your revolver."

He stopped and peered in my direction.

"Who is it?"

"Leslie. Come below, for God's sake!"

He came slowly toward me, and in a dozen words I told him what had
happened. I saw then that he had been drinking. He reeled against me,
and seemed at a loss to know what to do.

"Get your revolver," I said, "and wake the captain."

He disappeared into the forward house, to come back a moment later with
a revolver. I had got a lantern in the mean time, and ran to the
forward companionway which led into the main cabin. Singleton followed
me.

"Where's the captain?" I asked.

"I didn't call him," Singleton replied, and muttered something
unintelligible under his breath.

Swinging the lantern ahead of me, I led the way down the companionway.
Something lay huddled at the foot. I had to step over it to get down.
Singleton stood above, on the steps. I stooped and held the lantern
close, and we both saw that it was the captain, killed as Vail had
been. He was fully dressed except for his coat, and as he lay on his
back, his cap had been placed over his mutilated face.

I thought I heard something moving behind me in the cabin, and wheeled
sharply, holding my revolver leveled. The idea had come to me that the
crew had mutinied, and that every one in the after house had been
killed. The idea made me frantic; I thought of the women, of Elsa Lee,
and I was ready to kill.

"Where is the light switch?" I demanded of Singleton, who was still on
the companion steps, swaying.

"I don't know," he said, and collapsed, sitting huddled just above the
captain's body, with his face in his hands.

I saw I need not look to him for help, and I succeeded in turning on
the light in the swinging lamp in the center of the cabin. There was
no sign of any struggle, and the cabin was empty. I went back to the
captain's body, and threw a rug over it. Then I reached over and shook
Sing