"The facts are that there lies the _Laughing Lass_, a little weather-worn, but sound as a dollar, and not a living being aboard of her. Her boats are all there. Everything's in good condition, though none too orderly. Pitcher half full of fresh water in the rack. Sails all O. K. Ashes of the galley fire still warm. I tell you, gentlemen, that ship hasn't been deserted more than a couple of days at the outside." "Are you sure all the boats are there?" asked Ives. "Dory, dingy, and two surf boats. Isn't that enough?" "Plenty." "Been over her, inside and out. No sign of collision. No leak. No anything, except that the starboard side is blistered a bit. No evidence of fire anywhere else. I tell you," said Billy Edwards pathetically, "it's given me a headache." "Perhaps it's one of those cases of panic that Forsythe spoke of the other night," said Ives. "The crew got frightened at something and ran away, with the devil after them." "But crews don't just step out and run around the corner and hide, when they're scared," objected Barnett. "That's true, too," assented Ives. "Well, perhaps that volcanic eruption jarred them so that they jumped for it." "Pretty wild theory, that," said Edwards. "No wilder than the facts, as you give them," was the retort. "That's so," admitted the ensign gloomily. "But how about pestilence?" suggested Barnett. "Maybe they died fast and the last survivor, after the bodies of the rest were overboard, got delirious and jumped after them." "Not if the galley fire was hot," said Dr. Trendon, briefly. "No; pestilence doesn't work that way." "Did you look at the wheel, Billy?" asked Ives. "Did I! There's another thing. Wheel's all right, but compass is no good at all. It's regularly bewitched." "What about the log, then?" "Couldn't find it anywhere. Hunted high, low, jack, and the game; everywhere except in the big, brass-bound chest I found in the captain's cabin. Couldn't break into that." "Dr. Schermerhorn's chest!" exclaimed Barnett. "Then he was aboard." "Well, he isn't aboard now," said the ensign grimly. "Not in the flesh. And that's all," he added suddenly. "No; it isn't all," said Barnett gently. "There's something else. Captain's orders?" "Oh, no. Captain Parkinson doesn't take enough stock in my report to tell me to withhold anything," said Edwards, with a trace of bitterness in his voice. "It's nothing that I believe myself, anyhow." "Give _us_ a chance to believe it," said Ives. "Well," said the ensign hesitantly, "there's a sort of atmosphere about that schooner that's almost uncanny." "Oh, you had the shudders before you were ordered to board," bantered Ives.