Detective and mystery stories; Murder -- Fiction; Yachts -- Fiction
I believe he tried to get Singleton later, and failed. But he continued
his devotions on the forward deck, visible when clad in his robe,
invisible when he took it off. It was Jones, of course, who attacked
Burns and secured the key to the captain’s cabin; Jones who threw the
axe overboard after hearing the crew tell that on its handle were
finger-prints to identify the murderer; Jones who, while on guard in
the after house below, had pushed the key to the storeroom under
Turner’s door; Jones who hung the marlinespike over the side, waiting
perhaps for another chance at Singleton; Jones, in his devotional
attire, who had frightened the crew into hysteria, and who, discovered
by Mrs. Johns in the captain’s cabin, had rushed by her, and out, with
the axe. It is noticeable that he made no attempt to attack her. He
killed only in obedience to his signal, and he had had no signal.
Perhaps the most curious thing, after the murderer was known, was the
story of the people in the after house. It was months before I got that
in full. The belief among the women was that Turner, maddened by drink
and unreasoning jealousy, had killed Vail, and then, running amuck or
discovered by the other victims, had killed them. This was borne out by
Turner’s condition. His hands and parts of his clothing were
blood-stained.
Their condition was pitiable. Unable to speak for himself, he lay
raving in his room, talking to Vail and complaining of a white figure
that bothered him. The key that Elsa Lee picked up was another clue,
and in their attempt to get rid of it I had foiled them. Mrs. Johns, an
old friend and, as I have said, an ardent partisan, undertook to get
rid of the axe, with the result that we know. Even Turner’s recovery
brought little courage. He could only recall that he had gone into
Vail’s room and tried to wake him, without result; that he did not know
of the blood until the next day, or that Vail was dead; and that he had
a vague recollection of something white and ghostly that night—he was
not sure where he had seen it.
The failure of their attempt to get rid of the storeroom key was
matched by their failure to smuggle Turner’s linen off the ship.
Singleton suspected Turner, and, with the skillful and not over
scrupulous aid of his lawyer, had succeeded in finding in Mrs. Sloane’s
trunk the incriminating pieces.
As to the meaning of the keys, file, and club in Singleton’s mattress,
I believe the explanation is simple enough. He saw against him a strong
case. He had little money and no influence, while Turner had both. I
have every reason to believe that he hoped to make his escape before
the ship anchored, and was frustrated by my discovery of the keys and
by an extra bolt I put on his door and window.
The murders on the schooner-yacht Ella were solved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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