s daily, and learned that the diminution, whenever it occurred, was
first apparent immediately after meal-time. This focussed their
attention on two suspects--the second mate and the carpenter, who alone
sat in the after-room. The rest was easy. Whenever Mr. Mellaire arrived
ahead of the carpenter more alcohol was missing. When they arrived and
departed together, the alcohol was undisturbed. The carpenter was never
alone in the room. The syllogism was complete. And now the steward
stores the alcohol under his bunk.

But wood alcohol is deadly poison. What a constitution this man of fifty
must have! Small wonder his eyes have been bloodshot. The great wonder
is that the stuff did not destroy him.

I have not whispered a word of this to Margaret; nor shall I whisper it.
I should like to put Mr. Pike on his guard; and yet I know that the
revealing of Mr. Mellaire's identity would precipitate another killing.
And still we drive south, close-hauled on the wind, toward the
inhospitable tip of the continent. To-day we are south of a line drawn
between the Straits of Magellan and the Falklands, and to-morrow, if the
breeze holds, we shall pick up the coast of Tierra del Fuego close to the
entrance of the Straits of Le Maire, through which Captain West intends
to pass if the wind favours.

The other episode occurred last night. Mr. Pike says nothing, yet he
knows the crew situation. I have been watching some time now, ever since
the death of Marinkovich; and I am certain that Mr. Pike never ventures
on the main deck after dark. Yet he holds his tongue, confides in no
man, and plays out the bitter perilous game as a commonplace matter of
course and all in the day's work.

And now to the episode. Shortly after the close of the second dog-watch
last evening I went for'ard to the chickens on the 'midship-house on an
errand for Margaret. I was to make sure that the steward had carried out
her orders. The canvas covering to the big chicken coop had to be down,
the ventilation insured, and the kerosene stove burning properly. When I
had proved to my satisfaction the dependableness of the steward, and just
as I was on the verge of returning to the poop, I was drawn aside by the
weird crying of penguins in the darkness and by the unmistakable noise of
a whale blowing not far away.

I had climbed around the end of the port boat, and was standing there,
quite hidden in the darkness, when I heard the unmistakable age-l