The After House

"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 on a

wrapper. The room was dark when she opened the door. There was a

little light in the chart-room, from the binnacle lantern. The door

at the top of the companionway was always closed at night; the light

came through the window near the wheel."

She had kept up very well to this point, telling her story calmly and

keeping her voice down. But when she reached the actual killing of

the Danish maid, she went to pieces. She took to shivering

violently, and her pulse, under my fingers, was small and rapid. I

mixed some aromatic spirits with water and gave it to her, and we

waited until she could go on.

For the first time, then, I realized that I was clad only in shirt

and trousers, with a handkerchief around my head where the accident

in the hold had left me with a nasty cut. My bare feet were thrust

into down-at-the-heel slippers. I saw Miss Lee's eyes on me, and

colored.

"I had forgotten," I said uncomfortably. "I'll have time to find

my coat while she is recovering. I have been so occupied--"

"Don't be a fool," Mrs. Johns said brusquely. "No one cares how you

look. We only thank Heaven you are alive to look after us. Do you

know what we have been doing, locked in down here? We have been--"

"Please, Adele!" said Elsa Lee. And Mrs. Johns, shrugging her

shoulders, went back to her salts.

The rest of the story we got slowly. Briefly, it was this. Karen,

having made her protest at being called at such an hour, had put on

a wrapper and pinned up her hair. The light was on. The stewardess

said she heard a curious chopping sound in the main cabin, followed

by a fall, and called Karen's attention to it. The maid, impatient

and drowsy, had said it was probably Mr. Turner falling over

something, and that she hoped she would not meet him. Once or twice,

when he had been drinking, he had made overtures to her, and she

detested him.

The sound outside ceased. It was about five minutes since the bell

had rung, and Karen yawned and sat down on the bed. "I'll let her

ring again," she said. "If she gets in the habit of this sort of

thing, I'm going to leave." The stewardess asked her to put out the

light and let her sleep, and Karen did so. The two women were in

darkness, and the stewardess dozed, for a minute only. She was

awakened by Karen touching her on the shoulder and whispering close

to her ear.