The After House

by Mary Roberts Rinehart

  CHAPTER VI

  IN THE AFTER HOUSE

  The match burnt out, and I dropped it. I remember mechanicallyextinguishing the glowing end with my heel, and then straightening tosuch a sense of horror as I have never felt before or since. I gropedfor the door; I wanted air, space, the freedom from lurking death ofthe open deck.

  I had been sleeping with my revolver beside me on the pantry floor.Somehow or other I got back there and found it. I made an attempt tofind the switch for the cabin lights, and, failing, revolver in hand, Iran into the chart-room and up the after companionway. Charlie Joneswas at the wheel, and by the light of a lantern I saw that he wasbending to the right, peering in at the chartroom window. He turnedwhen he heard me.

  "What's wrong?" he asked. "I heard a yell a minute ago. Turner on therampage?" He saw my revolver then, and, letting go the wheel, threw upboth his hands. "Turn that gun away, you fool!"

  I could hardly speak. I lowered the revolver and gasped: "Call thecaptain! Vail's been murdered!

  "Good God!" he said. "Who did it?" He had taken the wheel again, andwas bringing the ship back to her course. I was turning sick anddizzy, and I clutched at the railing of the companionway.

  "I don't know. Where's the captain?"

  "The mate's around." He raised his voice. "Mr. Singleton!" he called.

  There was no time to lose, I felt. My nausea had left me. I ranforward to where I could dimly see Singleton looking in my direction.

  "Singleton! Quick!" I called. "Bring your revolver."

  He stopped and peered in my direction.

  "Who is it?"

  "Leslie. Come below, for God's sake!"

  He came slowly toward me, and in a dozen words I told him what hadhappened. I saw then that he had been drinking. He reeled against me,and seemed at a loss to know what to do.

  "Get your revolver," I said, "and wake the captain."

  He disappeared into the forward house, to come back a moment later witha revolver. I had got a lantern in the mean time, and ran to theforward companionway which led into the main cabin. Singleton followedme.

  "Where's the captain?" I asked.

  "I didn't call him," Singleton replied, and muttered somethingunintelligible under his breath.

  Swinging the lantern ahead of me, I led the way down the companionway.Something lay huddled at the foot. I had to step over it to get down.Singleton stood above, on the steps. I stooped and held the lanternclose, and we both saw that it was the captain, killed as Vail hadbeen. He was fully dressed except for his coat, and as he lay on hisback, his cap had been placed over his mutilated face.

  I thought I heard something moving behind me in the cabin, and wheeledsharply, holding my revolver leveled. The idea had come to me that thecrew had mutinied, and that every one in the after house had beenkilled. The idea made me frantic; I thought of the women, of Elsa Lee,and I was ready to kill.

  "Where is the light switch?" I demanded of Singleton, who was still onthe companion steps, swaying.

  "I don't know," he said, and collapsed, sitting huddled just above thecaptain's body, with his face in his hands.

  I saw I need not look to him for help, and I succeeded in turning onthe light in the swinging lamp in the center of the cabin. There wasno sign of any struggle, and the cabin was empty. I went back to thecaptain's body, and threw a rug over it. Then I reached over and shookSingleton by the arm.

  "Do something!" I raved. "Call the crew. Get somebody here, youdrunken fool!"

  He rose and staggered up the companionway, and I ran to Miss Lee'sdoor. It was closed and locked, as were all the others except Vail'sand the one I had broken open. I reached Mr. Turner's door last. Itwas locked, and I got no response to my knock. I remembered that hisroom and Vail's connected through a bath, and, still holding myrevolver leveled, I ran into Vail's room again, this time turning onthe light.

  A night light was burning in the bath-room, and the door beyond wasunlocked. I flung it open and stepped in. Turner was lying on hisbed, fully dressed, and at first I thought he too had been murdered.But he was in a drunken stupor. He sat up, dazed, when I shook him bythe arm.

  "Mr. Turner!" I cried. "Try to rouse yourself, man! The captain hasbeen murdered, and Mr. Vail!"

  He made an effort to sit up, swayed, and fell back again. His face wasswollen and purplish, his eyes congested. He made an effort to speak,but failed to be intelligible. I had no time to waste. Somewhere onthe Ella the murderer was loose. He must be found.

  I flung out of Turner's cabin as the crew, gathered from the forecastleand from the decks, crowded down the forward companionway. I ran my eyeover them. Every man was there, Singleton below by the captain's body,the crew, silent and horror-struck, grouped on the steps: Clarke,McNamara, Burns, Oleson, and Adams. Behind the crew, Charlie Jones hadleft the wheel and stood peering down, until sharply ordered back.Williams, with a bandage on his head, and Tom, the mulatto cook, werein the group.

  I stood, revolver in hand, staring at the men. Among them, I feltsure, was the murderer. But which one? All were equally pale, equallyterrified.

  "Boys," I said, "Mr. Vail and your captain have been murdered. Themurderer must be on the ship--one of ourselves." There was a murmur atthat. "Mr. Singleton, I suggest that these men stay together in abody, and that no one be allowed to go below until all have beensearched and all weapons taken from them."

  Singleton had dropped into a chair, and sat with his face buried in hishands, his back to the captain's body. He looked up without moving,and his face was gray.

  "All right," he said. "Do as you like. I'm sick."

  He looked sick. Burns, who had taken Schwartz's place as second mate,left the group and came toward me.

  "We'd better waken the women," he said. "If you'll tell them, Leslie,I'll take the crew on deck and keep them there."

  Singleton seemed dazed, and when Burns spoke of taking the men on deck,he got up dizzily.

  "I'm going too," he muttered. "I'll go crazy if I stay down here withthat."

  The rug had been drawn back to show the crew what had happened. I drewit reverently over the body again.

  After the men had gone, I knocked at Mrs. Turner's door. It was sometime before she roused; when she answered, her voice was startled.

  "What is it?"

  "It's Leslie, Mrs. Turner. Will you come to the door?"

  "In a moment."

  She threw on a dressing-gown, and opened the door.

  "What is wrong?"

  I told her, as gently as I could. I thought she would faint; but shepulled herself together and looked past me into the cabin.

  "That is--?"

  "The captain, Mrs. Turner."

  "And Mr. Vail?"

  "In his cabin."

  "Where is Mr. Turner?"

  "In his cabin, asleep."

  She looked at me strangely, and, leaving the door, went into hersister's room, next. I heard Miss Lee's low cry of horror, and almostimmediately the two women came to the doorway.

  "Have you seen Mr. Turner?" Miss Lee demanded.

  "Just now."

  "Has Mrs. Johns been told?"

  "Not yet."

  She went herself to Mrs. Johns's cabin, and knocked. She got animmediate answer, and Mrs. Johns, partly dressed, opened the door.

  "What's the matter?" she demanded. "The whole crew is tramping outsidemy windows. I hope we haven't struck an iceberg."

  "Adele, don't faint, please. Something awful has happened."

  "Turner! He has killed some one finally!"

  "Hush, for Heaven's sake! Wilmer has been murdered, Adele--and thecaptain."

  Mrs. Johns had less control than the other women. She stood for aninstant, with a sort of horrible grin on her face. Then she went downon the floor, full length, with a crash. Elsa Lee knelt beside her andslid a pillow under her head.

  "Call the maids, Leslie," she said quietly. "Karen has something forthis sort of thing. Tell he
r to bring it quickly."

  I went the length of the cabin and into the chartroom. The maids' roomwas here, on the port-side, and thus aft of Mrs. Turner's and MissLee's rooms. It had one door only, and two small barred windows, oneabove each of the two bunks.

  I turned on the chart-room lights. At the top of the aftercompanionway the crew had been assembled, and Burns was haranguingthem. I knocked at the maids' door, and, finding it unlocked, openedit an inch or so.

  "Karen!" I called--and, receiving no answer: "Mrs. Sloane!" (thestewardess).

  I opened the door wide and glanced in. Karen Hansen, the maid, was onthe floor, dead. The stewardess, in collapse from terror, was in herbunk, uninjured.