s was haranguing
them. I knocked at the maids' door, and, finding it unlocked, opened
it an inch or so.

"Karen!" I called--and, receiving no answer: "Mrs. Sloane!" (the
stewardess).

I opened the door wide and glanced in. Karen Hansen, the maid, was on
the floor, dead. The stewardess, in collapse from terror, was in her
bunk, uninjured.

CHAPTER VII

WE FIND THE AXE

I went to the after companionway and called up to the men to send the
first mate down; but Burns came instead.

"Singleton's sick," he explained. "He's up there in a corner, with
Oleson and McNamara holding him."

"Burns," I said cautiously--"I've found another!"

"God, not one of the women!"

"One of the maids--Karen."

Burns was a young fellow about my own age, and to this point he had
stood up well. But he had been having a sort of flirtation with the
girl, and I saw him go sick with horror. He wanted to see her, when he
had got command of himself; but I would not let him enter the room. He
stood outside, while I went in and carried out the stewardess, who was
coming to and moaning. I took her forward, and told the three women
there what I had found.

Mrs. Johns was better, and I found them all huddled in her room. I put
the stewardess on the bed, and locked the door into the next room.
Then, after examining the window, I gave Elsa Lee my revolver.

"Don't let any one in," I said. "I'll put a guard at the two
companionways, and we'll let no one down. But keep the door locked
also."

She took the revolver from me, and examined it with the air of one
familiar with firearms. Then she looked up at me, her lips as white as
her face.

"We are relying on you, Leslie," she said.

And, at her words, the storm of self-contempt and bitterness that I had
been holding in abeyance for the last half hour swept over me like a
flood. I could have wept for fury.

"Why should you trust me?" I demanded. "I slept through the time when
I was needed. And when I wakened and found myself locked in the
storeroom, I waited to take the lock off instead of breaking down the
door! I ought to jump overboard."

"We are relying on you," she said again, simply; and I heard her fasten
the door behind me as I went out.

Dawn was coming as I joined the crew, huddled around the wheel. There
were nine men, counting Singleton. But Singleton hardly counted. He
was in a state of profound mental and physical collapse. The Ella was
without an