It was past midnight when, at last, I went below. The saloon, smoking-room and alleyways were deserted and almost in darkness. No sound of any sort was audible but the rhythmic throbbing of the engines. The boat still travelled without the slightest motion. Hark! I stopped abruptly, for I had heard a sound—it had sounded like a gasp. Hardly breathing, I listened intently. Again I heard it—this time more faintly. It had seemed to come from a cabin on my left, a little further forward. I stood quite still in the alleyway for several minutes. Then, hearing nothing more, I went on to my own cabin. But somehow, try as I would, I could not get to sleep. For hours I lay wide awake upon my bunk. What had caused that curious sound, I kept wondering, though I tried to put the thought from me. And who had those men been, those three silent figures passing like spectres along the deck, and what had they been doing, and why had they gone down into the steerage? I suppose I must at last have fallen asleep, for when I opened my eyes the sea had risen a good deal, and the boat was rolling heavily. Pulling my watch from beneath my pillow, I saw that it was nearly four—we were due into port at Dieppe before four. The timbers of the ship creaked at intervals; the door of my cabin rattled; I could hear footsteps on deck and in the alleyway beside my door. "Have you heard the dreadful news, sir?" a scared-looking steward said to me as I made my way towards the companion ladder half an hour later—I had taken care to adjust my disguise exactly in the way that Preston had taught me to. "No—what?" I asked, stopping abruptly. "A saloon passenger has hanged himself during the night." "Good God!" I exclaimed. "Who is it?" "I don't know his name. He was in number thirty-two—alone." "Thirty-two! Surely that was a cabin in the alleyway where I had heard the gasp, not far from my own cabin." "Are you certain it was suicide?" I asked. "Oh, it was suicide right enough," the steward answered, "and he must have been hanging there some hours—by a rope. Seems he must have brought the rope with him, as it don't belong to the boat. He must have come aboard intending to do it. My mate—he found him not half an hour ago, and it so scared him that he fainted right off." "Have you seen the poor fellow? What was he like?" "Yes. Most amazing thing, sir," the steward continued volubly, "but it seems he'd disguised himself. He'd got on a wig and false moustache and whiskers." All the blood seemed to rush away from my heart. Everything about me was going round. I have a slight recollection of reeling forward and being caught by the steward, but of what happened after that, until I found myself lying on a sofa in the saloon, with the ship's doctor and the stewardess standing looking down at me. I have not the remotest recollection.