was what those on board the _Susan Jane_ noticed now, as she passed
by the floating remnants of what had once been a gallant ship, as they
could tell from her size and length. But Captain Blowser saw something
more with his glass--for the _Susan Jane_ could not approach very near
to the water-logged hull that was almost level with the surface of the
sea, for fear of colliding through the "scud" of the waves--something
that made him take in the clipper's lighter sails, despite his anxiety
to take advantage of every breath of the wind and make a rapid passage
to Boston, and lay the ship to; while he had a boat lowered, and went to
inspect the derelict hulk more closely.

Mr Rawlings, the passenger, accompanied the skipper, so did also Seth
Allport; and naturally, as Seth went, Sailor Bill followed his
protector, or adopted master, dog-fashion as usual, taking his seat in
the boat as a matter of course!

On boarding the abandoned vessel a horrible sight presented itself.
Three corpses were stretched on the afterpart of the deck near the
wheelhouse--which had been wrenched away, along with the binnacle and
bulwarks, and the cabin skylight, while the hull was full of water and
kept afloat only by the buoyant nature of the cargo, although they could
not discover what that was, as it was completely submerged. But those
three corpses told a tale of some deadly struggle, as there was a knife
still tightly clutched in the dead hand of the one, an empty revolver in
that of another, while the third had a rope tied round his throat as if
he had been strangled by the other two.

The bodies of all, which exhibited signs of emaciation through
starvation, being almost skeletons, showed also numerous wounds, while
their clothing was rent into tatters from cuts and slashes apart from
the wash of the water, which had, of course, swept away most of the
blood that had probably flowed from the wounds, although there was a
large dark blotch on the deck close to the after hatch, testifying that
some gory pool had been there.

"I guess there's been some of the devil's work here!" said the skipper
gravely.

"You bet," chimed in Seth Allport, whose keen eye was looking out for
some evidence of the nationality of the ship. "She ain't a foreigner,
and Britishers don't murder one another like this. S'pose there was a
muss on board, or something like a mutiny, eh, Cap?" he added presently.

"Yes," answered Captain Blowser, who was also looki