on steps. You listen, and if he tries to stop me
I'll call you."

The stewardess was wide awake by that time. She thought perhaps the
bell, instead of coming from Mrs. Turner's room, had come from the room
adjoining Turner's, where Vail slept, and which had been originally
designed for Mrs. Turner. She suggested turning on the light again and
looking at the bell register; but Karen objected.

The stewardess sat up in her bed, which was the one under the small
window opening on the deck aft. She could not see through the door
directly, but a faint light came through the doorway as Karen opened
the door.

The girl stood there, looking out. Then suddenly she threw up her
hands and screamed, and the next moment there was a blow struck. She
staggered back a step or two, and fell into the room. The stewardess
saw a white figure in the doorway as the girl fell. Almost instantly
something whizzed by her, striking the end of a pillow and bruising her
arm. She must have fainted. When she recovered, faint daylight was
coming into the room, and the body of the Danish girl was lying as it
had fallen.

She tried to get up, and fainted again.

That was her story, and it did not tell us much that we needed to know.
She showed me her right arm, which was badly bruised and discolored at
the shoulder.

"What do you mean by a white figure?"

"It looked white: it seemed to shine."

"When I went to call you, Mrs. Sloane, the door to your room was
closed."

"I saw it closed!" she said positively. "I had forgotten that, but now
I remember. The axe fell beside me, and I tried to scream, but I could
not. I saw the door closed, very slowly and without a sound. Then I
fainted."

The thing was quite possible. Owing to the small size of the cabin,
and to the fact that it must accommodate two bunks, the door opened out
into the chart-room. Probably the woman had fainted before I broke the
lock of my door and fell into the main cabin. But a white figure!

"Karen exclaimed," Miss Lee said slowly, "that some one was sitting on
the companion steps?"

"Yes, miss."

"And she thought that it was Mr. Turner?"

"Yes." The stewardess looked quickly at Mrs. Turner, and averted her
eyes. "It may have been all talk, miss, about his--about his bothering
her. She was a great one to fancy that men were following her about."

Miss Lee got up and came to the door where I was standing.

"Surely we need not be prisoners any longer!"