But, after all, the story of Henrietta Sloane only added to the
mystery. She told it to me, sitting propped in a chair in Mrs.
Johns's room, her face white, her lips dry and twitching. The crew
were making such breakfast as they could on deck, and Mr. Turner
was still in a stupor in his room across the main cabin. The four
women, drawn together in their distress, were huddled in the center
of the room, touching hands now and then, as if finding comfort in
contact, and reassurance.
"I went to bed early," said the stewardess; "about ten o'clock, I
think. Karen had not come down; I wakened when the watch changed.
It was hot, and the window from our room to the deck was open. There
is a curtain over it, to keep the helmsman from looking in--it is
close to the wheel. The bell, striking every half-hour, does not
waken me 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."