The After House

by Mary Roberts Rinehart

  CHAPTER VIII

  THE STEWARDESS'S STORY

  But, after all, the story of Henrietta Sloane only added to themystery. She told it to me, sitting propped in a chair in Mrs. Johns'sroom, her face white, her lips dry and twitching. The crew were makingsuch breakfast as they could on deck, and Mr. Turner was still in astupor in his room across the main cabin. The four women, drawntogether in their distress, were huddled in the center of the room,touching hands now and then, as if finding comfort in contact, andreassurance.

  "I went to bed early," said the stewardess; "about ten o'clock, Ithink. Karen had not come down; I wakened when the watch changed. Itwas hot, and the window from our room to the deck was open. There is acurtain over it, to keep the helmsman from looking in--it is close tothe wheel. The bell, striking every half-hour, does not waken me anymore, although it did at first. It is just outside the window. But Iheard the watch change. I heard eight bells struck, and the lookoutman on the forecastle head call, 'All's well.'

  "I sat up and turned on the lights. Karen had not come down, and I wasalarmed. She had been--had been flirting a little with one of thesailors, and I had warned her that it would not do. She'd be found outand get into trouble.

  "The only way to reach our cabin was through the chart-room, and when Iopened the door an inch or two, I saw why Karen had not come down. Mr.Turner and Mr. Singleton were sitting there. They were--" Shehesitated.

  "Please go on," said Mrs. Turner. "They were drinking?"

  "Yes, Mrs. Turner. And Mr. Vail was there, too. He was saying thatthe captain would come down and there would be more trouble. I shutthe door and stood just inside, listening. Mr. Singleton said he hopedthe captain would come--that he and Mr. Turner only wanted a chance toget at him."

  Miss Lee leaned forward and searched the stewardess's face withstrained eyes.

  "You are sure that he mentioned Mr. Turner in that?"

  "That was exactly what he said, Miss Lee. The captain came down justthen, and ordered Mr. Singleton on deck. I think he went, for I didnot hear his voice again. I thought, from the sounds, that Mr. Vailand the captain were trying to get Mr. Turner to his room."

  Mrs. Johns had been sitting back, her eyes shut, holding a bottle ofsalts to her nose. Now she looked up.

  "My dear woman," she said, "are you trying to tell us that we sleptthrough all that?"

  "If you did not hear it, you must have slept," the stewardess persistedobstinately. "The door into the main cabin was closed. Karen came downjust after. She was frightened. She said the first mate was on deck,in a terrible humor; and that Charlie Jones, who was at the wheel, hadappealed to Burns not to leave him there--that trouble was coming.That must have been at half-past twelve. The bell struck as she put outthe light. We both went to sleep then, until Mrs. Turner's ringing forKaren roused us."

  "But I did not ring for Karen."

  The woman stared at Mrs. Turner.

  "But the bell rang, Mrs. Turner. Karen got up at once and, turning onthe light, looked at the clock. 'What do you think of that?' she said.'Ten minutes to three, and I'd just got to sleep!' I growled about thelight, and she put it out, after she had thrown on a wrapper. The roomwas dark when she opened the door. There was a little light in thechart-room, from the binnacle lantern. The door at the top of thecompanionway was always closed at night; the light came through thewindow near the wheel."

  She had kept up very well to this point, telling her story calmly andkeeping her voice down. But when she reached the actual killing of theDanish maid, she went to pieces. She took to shivering violently, andher pulse, under my fingers, was small and rapid. I mixed somearomatic spirits with water and gave it to her, and we waited until shecould go on.

  For the first time, then, I realized that I was clad only in shirt andtrousers, with a handkerchief around my head where the accident in thehold had left me with a nasty cut. My bare feet were thrust intodown-at-the-heel slippers. I saw Miss Lee's eyes on me, and colored.

  "I had forgotten," I said uncomfortably. "I'll have time to find mycoat while she is recovering. I have been so occupied--"

  "Don't be a fool," Mrs. Johns said brusquely. "No one cares how youlook. We only thank Heaven you are alive to look after us. Do youknow what we have been doing, locked in down here? We have been--"

  "Please, Adele!" said Elsa Lee. And Mrs. Johns, shrugging hershoulders, went back to her salts.

  The rest of the story we got slowly. Briefly, it was this. Karen,having made her protest at being called at such an hour, had put on awrapper and pinned up her hair. The light was on. The stewardess saidshe heard a curious chopping sound in the main cabin, followed by afall, and called Karen's attention to it. The maid, impatient anddrowsy, had said it was probably Mr. Turner falling over something, andthat she hoped she would not meet him. Once or twice, when he had beendrinking, he had made overtures to her, and she detested him.

  The sound outside ceased. It was about five minutes since the bell hadrung, and Karen yawned and sat down on the bed. "I'll let her ringagain," she said. "If she gets in the habit of this sort of thing, I'mgoing to leave." The stewardess asked her to put out the light and lether sleep, and Karen did so. The two women were in darkness, and thestewardess dozed, for a minute only. She was awakened by Karentouching her on the shoulder and whispering close to her ear.

  "That beast is out there," she said. "I peered out, and I think he issitting on the companion steps. You listen, and if he tries to stop meI'll call you."

  The stewardess was wide awake by that time. She thought perhaps thebell, instead of coming from Mrs. Turner's room, had come from the roomadjoining Turner's, where Vail slept, and which had been originallydesigned for Mrs. Turner. She suggested turning on the light again andlooking at the bell register; but Karen objected.

  The stewardess sat up in her bed, which was the one under the smallwindow opening on the deck aft. She could not see through the doordirectly, but a faint light came through the doorway as Karen openedthe door.

  The girl stood there, looking out. Then suddenly she threw up herhands and screamed, and the next moment there was a blow struck. Shestaggered back a step or two, and fell into the room. The stewardesssaw a white figure in the doorway as the girl fell. Almost instantlysomething whizzed by her, striking the end of a pillow and bruising herarm. She must have fainted. When she recovered, faint daylight wascoming into the room, and the body of the Danish girl was lying as ithad fallen.

  She tried to get up, and fainted again.

  That was her story, and it did not tell us much that we needed to know.She showed me her right arm, which was badly bruised and discolored atthe shoulder.

  "What do you mean by a white figure?"

  "It looked white: it seemed to shine."

  "When I went to call you, Mrs. Sloane, the door to your room wasclosed."

  "I saw it closed!" she said positively. "I had forgotten that, but nowI remember. The axe fell beside me, and I tried to scream, but I couldnot. I saw the door closed, very slowly and without a sound. Then Ifainted."

  The thing was quite possible. Owing to the small size of the cabin,and to the fact that it must accommodate two bunks, the door opened outinto the chart-room. Probably the woman had fainted before I broke thelock of my door and fell into the main cabin. But a white figure!

  "Karen exclaimed," Miss Lee said slowly, "that some one was sitting onthe companion steps?"

  "Yes, miss."

  "And she thought that it was Mr. Turner?"

  "Yes." The stewardess looked quickly at Mrs. Turner, and averted hereyes. "It may have been all talk, miss, about his--about his botheringher. She was a great one to fancy that men were following her about."

  Miss Lee got up and came to the door where I was standing.

  "Surely we need not be prisoners any longer!" she said in an undertone."It is daylight. If I stay here I shall go crazy."

  "The murderer is still on the ship," I protested.
"And just now thedeck is--hardly a place for women. Wait until this afternoon, MissLee. By that time I shall have arranged for a guard for you. AlthoughGod knows, with every man under suspicion, where we will find any totrust."

  "You will arrange a guard!"

  "The men have asked me to take charge."

  "But--I don't understand. The first mate--"

  "--is a prisoner of the crew."

  "They accuse him!"

  "They have to accuse some one. There's a sort of hysteria among themen, and they've fixed on Singleton. They won't hurt him, I'll see tothat,--and it makes for order."

  She considered for a moment. I had time then to see the havoc thenight had wrought in her. She was pale, with deep hollows around hereyes. Her hands shook and her mouth drooped wearily. But, althoughher face was lined with grief, it was not the passionate sorrow of aloving girl. She had not loved Vail, I said to myself. She had notloved Vail! My heart beat faster.

  "Will you allow me to leave this room for five minutes?"

  "If I may go with you, and if you will come back without protest."

  "You are arbitrary!" she said resentfully. "I only wish to speak toMr. Turner."

  "Then--if I may wait at the door."

  "I shall not go, under those conditions."

  "Miss Lee," I said desperately, "surely you must realize the state ofaffairs. We must trust no one--no one. Every shadowy corner, everyclosed door, may hold death in its most terrible form."

  "You are right, of course. Will you wait outside? I can dress and beready in five minutes."

  I went into the main cabin, now bright with the morning sun, whichstreamed down the forward companionway. The door to Vail's room acrosswas open, and Williams, working in nervous haste, was putting it inorder. Walking up and down, his shrewd eyes keenly alert, CharlieJones was on guard, revolver in hand. He came over to me at once.

  "Turner is moving, in there," he said, jerking his thumb toward theforward cabin. "What are you going to do? Let a drunken sot like thatgive us orders, and bang us with a belaying pin when we don't pleasehim?"

  "He is the owner. But one thing we can do, Jones. We can keep himfrom more liquor. Williams!"

  He came out, more dead than alive.

  "Williams," I said sternly, "I give you an hour to get rid of everyounce of liquor on the Ella. Remember, not a bottle is to be saved."

  "But Mistah Turner--"

  "I'll answer to Mr. Turner. Get it overboard before he gets around.And, Williams!"

  "Well?"--sullenly.

  "I'm going around after you, and if I find so much as a pint, I'll putyou in that room you have just left, and lock you in."

  He turned even grayer, and went into the storeroom.

  A day later, and the crew would probably have resented what they sawthat morning. But that day they only looked up apathetically fromtheir gruesome work of sewing into bags of canvas the sheeted bodies onthe deck, while a gray-faced Negro in a white coat flung over the railcases of fine wines, baskets and boxes full of bottles, dozen afterdozen of brandies and liquors, all sinking beyond salvage in the blueAtlantic.