The After House

Mrs. Johns and the stewardess came up late in the afternoon. We had

railed off a part of the deck around the forward companionway for

them, and none of the crew except the man on guard was allowed inside

the ropes. After a consultation, finding the ship very short-handed,

and unwilling with the night coming on to trust any of the men, Burns

and I decided to take over this duty ourselves, and, by stationing

ourselves at the top of the companionway, to combine the duties of

officer on watch and guard of the after house. To make the women

doubly secure, we had Oleson nail all the windows closed, although

they were merely portholes. Jones was no longer on guard below, and

I had exchanged Singleton's worthless revolver for my own serviceable

one.

Mrs. Johns, carefully dressed, surveyed the railed-off deck with

raised eyebrows.

"For--us?" she asked, looking at me. The men were gathered about

the wheel aft, and were out of ear-shot. Mrs. Sloane had dropped

into a steamer-chair, and was lying back with closed eyes.

"Yes, Mrs. Johns."

"Where have you put them?"

I pointed to where the jolly-boat, on the port side of the ship,

swung on its davits.

"And the mate, Mr. Singleton?"

"He is in the forward house."

"What did you do with the--the weapon?"

"Why do you ask that?"

"Morbid curiosity," she said, with a lightness of tone that rang

false to my ears. "And then--naturally, I should like to be sure

that it is safely overboard, so it will not be"--she shivered--"

used again."

"It is not overboard, Mrs. Johns," I said gravely. "It is locked in

a safe place, where it will remain until the police come to take it."

"You are rather theatrical, aren't you?" she scoffed, and turned away.

But a second later she came back to me, and put her hand on my arm.

"Tell me where it is," she begged. "You are making a mystery of it,

and I detest mysteries."

I saw under her mask of lightness then: she wanted desperately to

know where the axe was. Her eyes fell, under my gaze.

"I am sorry. There is no mystery. It is simply locked away for

safe-keeping."

She bit her lip.

"Do you know what I think?" she said slowly. "I think you have

hypnotized the crew, as you did me--at first. Why has no one

remembered that you were in the after house last night, that you

found poor Wilmer Vail, that you raised the alarm, that you

discovered the captain and Karen? Why should I not call the men

here and remind them of all that?"

"I do not believe you will. They know I was locked in the

storeroom. The door--the lock--"

"You could have locked yourself in."