e any
more, although it did at first. It is just outside the window. But I
heard the watch change. I heard eight bells struck, and the lookout
man on the forecastle head call, 'All's well.'

"I sat up and turned on the lights. Karen had not come down, and I was
alarmed. She had been--had been flirting a little with one of the
sailors, and I had warned her that it would not do. She'd be found out
and get into trouble.

"The only way to reach our cabin was through the chart-room, and when I
opened the door an inch or two, I saw why Karen had not come down. Mr.
Turner and Mr. Singleton were sitting there. They were--" She
hesitated.

"Please go on," said Mrs. Turner. "They were drinking?"

"Yes, Mrs. Turner. And Mr. Vail was there, too. He was saying that
the captain would come down and there would be more trouble. I shut
the door and stood just inside, listening. Mr. Singleton said he hoped
the captain would come--that he and Mr. Turner only wanted a chance to
get at him."

Miss Lee leaned forward and searched the stewardess's face with
strained eyes.

"You are sure that he mentioned Mr. Turner in that?"

"That was exactly what he said, Miss Lee. The captain came down just
then, and ordered Mr. Singleton on deck. I think he went, for I did
not hear his voice again. I thought, from the sounds, that Mr. Vail
and the captain were trying to get Mr. Turner to his room."

Mrs. Johns had been sitting back, her eyes shut, holding a bottle of
salts to her nose. Now she looked up.

"My dear woman," she said, "are you trying to tell us that we slept
through all that?"

"If you did not hear it, you must have slept," the stewardess persisted
obstinately. "The door into the main cabin was closed. Karen came down
just after. She was frightened. She said the first mate was on deck,
in a terrible humor; and that Charlie Jones, who was at the wheel, had
appealed to Burns not to leave him there--that trouble was coming.
That must have been at half-past twelve. The bell struck as she put out
the light. We both went to sleep then, until Mrs. Turner's ringing for
Karen roused us."

"But I did not ring for Karen."

The woman stared at Mrs. Turner.

"But the bell rang, Mrs. Turner. Karen got up at once and, turning on
the light, looked at the clock. 'What do you think of that?' she said.
'Ten minutes to three, and I'd just got to sleep!' I growled about the
light, and she put it out, after she had thrown