Detective and mystery stories; Murder -- Fiction; Yachts -- Fiction
Without looking at me, he drew it from his hip pocket and held it out.
I took it: It was loaded.
“It’s out of order,” he said briefly. “If it had been working right, I
wouldn’t be here.”
I reached down and touched his wrist. His pulse was slow and rather
faint, his hands cold.
“Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Yes,” he snarled. “You can get me a belaying-pin and let me at those
fools over there. Turner did this, and you know it as well as I do!”
I slid his revolver into my pocket, and went back to the men. Counting
Williams and the cook and myself, there were nine of us. The cook I
counted out, ordering him to go to the galley and prepare breakfast.
The eight that were left I divided into two watches, Burns taking one
and I the other. On Burns’s watch were Clarke, McNamara, and Williams;
on mine, Oleson, Adams, and Charlie Jones.
It was two bells, or five o’clock. Burns struck the gong sharply as an
indication that order, of a sort, had been restored. The rising sun was
gleaming on the sails; the gray surface of the sea was ruffling under
the morning breeze. From the galley a thin stream of smoke was rising.
Some of the horror of the night went with the darkness, but the thought
of what waited in the cabin below was on us all.
I suggested another attempt to rouse Mr. Turner, and Burns and Clarke
went below. They came back in ten minutes, reporting no change in
Turner’s condition. There was open grumbling among the men at the
situation, but we were helpless. Burns and I decided to go on as if
Turner were not on board, until he was in condition to take hold.
We thought it best to bring up the bodies while all the crew was on
duty, and then to take up the watches. I arranged to have one man
constantly on guard in the after house—a difficult matter where all
were under suspicion. Burns suggested Charlie Jones as probably the
most reliable, and I gave him the revolver I had taken from Singleton.
It was useless, but it made at least a show of authority. The rest of
the crew, except Oleson, on guard over the mate, was detailed to assist
in carrying up the three bodies. Williams was taken along to get sheets
from the linen room.
We brought the captain up first, laying him on a sheet on the deck and
folding the edges over him. It was terrible work. Even I, fresh from a
medical college, grew nauseated over it. He was heavy. It was slow
work, getting him up. Vail we brought up in the sheets from his bunk.
Of the three, he was the most mutilated. The maid Karen showed only one
injury, a smashing blow on the head, probably from the head of the axe.
For axe it had been, beyond a doubt. I put Williams to work below to
clear away every evidence of what had happened. He went down,
ashy-faced, only to rush up again, refusing to stay alone. I sent
Clarke with him, and instructed Charlie Jones to keep them there until
the cabin was in order.
At three bells the cook brought coffee, and some of the men took it. I
tried to swallow, but it choked me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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