The After House

by Mary Roberts Rinehart

  CHAPTER XIX

  I TAKE THE STAND

  And now I come, with some hesitation, to the trial. Hesitation,because I relied on McWhirter to keep a record. And McWhirter, fromhis notes, appears to have been carried away at times by excitement,and either jotted down rows of unintelligible words, or waited untilevening and made up his notes, like a woman's expense account, from amemory never noticeable for accuracy.

  At dawn, the morning after we anchored, Charlie Jones roused me,grinning.

  "Friend of yours over the rail, Leslie," he said. "Wants to take youashore!"

  I knew no one in Philadelphia except the chap who had taken me yachtingonce, and I felt pretty certain that he would not associate Leslie thefootball player with Leslie the sailor on the Ella. I went reluctantlyto the rail, and looked down. Below me, just visible in the river mistof the early morning, was a small boat from which two men were lookingup. One was McWhirter!

  "Hello, old top," he cried. "Or is it you behind that beard?"

  "It's I, all right, Mac," I said, somewhat huskily. What with seeinghim again, his kindly face behind its glasses, the cheerful faith in mewhich was his contribution to our friendship,--even the way he shookhis own hand in default of mine,--my throat tightened. Here, afterall, was home and a friend.

  He looked up at the rail, and motioned to a rope that hung there.

  "Get your stuff and come with us for breakfast," he said. "You look asif you hadn't eaten since you left."

  "I'm afraid I can't, Mac."

  "They're not going to hold you, are they?"

  "For a day or so, yes."

  Mac's reply to this was a violent resume of the ancestry and presentlost condition of the Philadelphia police, ending with a request that Ijump over, and let them go to the place he had just designated as theirabiding-place in eternity. On an officer lounging to the rail andlooking down, however, he subsided into a low muttering.

  The story of how McWhirter happened to be floating on the bosom of theDelaware River before five o'clock in the morning was a long one--itwas months before I got it in full. Briefly, going home from thetheater in New York the night before, he had bought an "extra" whichhad contained a brief account of the Ella's return. He seems to havegone into a frenzy of excitement at once. He borrowed a smallcar,--one scornfully designated as a "road louse,"--and assembled init, in wild confusion, one suit of clothes for me, his own and much toosmall, one hypodermic case, an armful of newspapers with redscare-heads, a bottle of brandy, a bottle of digitalis, one policecard, and one excited young lawyer, of the same vintage in law that Macand I were in medicine. At the last moment, fearful that the policemight not know who I was, he had flung in a scrapbook in which he hadpasted--with a glue that was to make his fortune--records of myexploits on the football field!

  A dozen miles from Philadelphia the little machine had turned over on acurve, knocking all the law and most of the enthusiasm out of Walters,the legal gentleman, and smashing the brandy-bottle. McWhirter hadpicked himself up, kicked viciously at the car, and, gathering up hisimpedimenta, had made the rest of the journey by foot and street-car.

  His wrath at finding me a prisoner was unbounded; his scorn at Walters,the attorney, for not confounding the police with law enough to freeme, was furious and contemptuous. He picked up the oars in sullensilence, and, leaning on them, called a loud and defiant farewell forthe benefit of the officer.

  "All right," he said. "An hour or so won't make much difference. Butyou'll be free today, all right, all right. And don't let them bluffyou, boy. If the police get funny, tackle them and throw 'emoverboard, one by one. You can do it."

  He made an insulting gesture at the police, picked up his oars, androwed away into the mist.

  But I was not free, that day, nor for many days. As I had expected,Turner, his family, Mrs. Johns, and the stewardess were released, afterexamination. The rest of us were taken to jail. Singleton as asuspect, the others to make sure of their presence at the trial.

  The murders took place on the morning of August 12. The Grand jury metlate in September, and found an indictment against Singleton. The trialbegan on the 16th of November.

  The confinement was terrible. Accustomed to regular exercise as I was,I suffered mentally and physically. I heard nothing from Elsa Lee, andI missed McWhirter, who had got his hospital appointment, and who wroteme cheering letters on pages torn from order-books or onprescription-blanks. He was in Boston.

  He got leave of absence for the trial, and, as I explained, thefollowing notes are his, not mine. The case was tried in the UnitedStates Court, before Circuit Judge Willard and District Judge McDowell.The United States was represented by a district attorney and twoassistant attorneys. Singleton had retained a lawyer named Goldstein,a clever young Jew.

  I was called first, as having found the bodies.

  "Your name?"

  "Ralph Leslie."

  "Your age?"

  "Twenty-four."

  "When and where were you born?"

  "November 18, 1887, in Columbus, Ohio."

  "When did you ship on the yacht Ella?"

  "On July 27."

  "When did she sail?"

  "July 28."

  "Are you a sailor by occupation?"

  "No; I am a graduate of a medical college."

  "What were your duties on the ship?"

  "They were not well defined. I had been ill and was not strong. I wasa sort of deck steward, I suppose. I also served a few meals in thecabin of the after house, when the butler was incapacitated."

  "Where were you quartered?"

  "In the forecastle, with the crew, until a day or so before themurders. Then I moved into the after house, and slept in a storeroomthere."

  "Why did you make the change?"

  "Mrs. Johns, a guest, asked me to do so. She said she was nervous."

  "Who slept in the after house?"

  "Mr. and Mrs. Turner, Miss Lee, Mrs. Johns, and Mr. Vail. Thestewardess, Mrs. Sloane, and Karen Hansen, a maid, also slept there;but their room opened from the chartroom."

  A diagram of the after house was here submitted to the jury. For thebenefit of the reader, I reproduce it roughly. I have made no attemptto do more than to indicate the relative positions of rooms andcompanionways.

  _____ Forward |_____|Compartment ___________________________|_____|______________________________ bath |_____| / / ___ ___ |_____| /Turner's/ Mrs. /room_ __/ John's /____/ / room Main Cabin / / / ___ ___ / /_ _/bath Mrs. / Vail's /room Turner's ___ /________/ room / ______/linen ____ /__/store/ bath /__ room / /___/____/ __ /general / Miss /supplies/ Lee's /________/ room _____________ _____/________/butler's _maid's Chart Room / pantry room used as library / bunk--- ___ and lounge____ / ______________|____|_/ bunk (wheel)|____|

  "State what happened on the night of August 11 and early morning ofAugust 12."

  "I slept in the storeroom in the after house. As it was very hot, Ialways left the door open. The storeroom itself was a small room,lined with shelves, and reached by a passageway. The door was at theend of the passage. I wakened because of the heat, and found the doorlocked on the outside. I lit a match, and found I could unscrew thelock with my knife. I thought I had been locked in as a joke by thecrew. Wh
ile I was kneeling, some one passed outside the door."

  "How did you know that?"

  "I felt a board rise under my knee as if the other end had been trodon. Shortly after, a woman screamed, and I burst open the door."

  "How long after you felt the board rise?"

  "Perhaps a minute, possibly two."

  "Go on."

  "Just after, the ship's bell struck six--three o'clock. The main cabinwas dark. There was a light in the chart-room, from the binnaclelight. I felt my way to Mr. Vail's room. I heard him breathing. Hisdoor was open. I struck a match and looked at him. He had stoppedbreathing."

  "What was the state of his bunk?"

  "Disordered--horrible. He was almost hacked to pieces."

  "Go on."

  "I ran back and got my revolver. I thought there had been a mutiny-"

  "Confine yourself to what you saw and did. The court is not interestedin what you thought."

  "I am only trying to explain what I did. I ran back to the storeroomand got my revolver, and ran back through the chart-room to the aftercompanion, which had a hood. I thought that if any one was lying inambush, the hood would protect me until I could get to the deck. Itold the helmsman what had happened, and ran forward. Mr. Singletonwas on the forecastle-head. We went below together, and found thecaptain lying at the foot of the forward companion, also dead."

  "At this time, had you called the owner of the ship?"

  "No. I called him then. But I could not rouse him."

  "Explain what you mean by that."

  "He had been drinking."

  There followed a furious wrangle over this point; but the prosecutingattorney succeeded in having question and answer stand.

  "What did you do next?"

  "The mate had called the crew. I wakened Mrs. Turner, Miss Lee, andMrs. Johns, and then went to the chart-room to call the women there.The door was open an inch or so. I received no answer to my knock, andpulled it open. Karen Hansen, the maid, was dead on the floor, and thestewardess was in her bunk, in a state of collapse."

  "State where you found the axe with which the crimes were committed."

  "It was found in the stewardess's bunk."

  "Where is this axe now?"

  "It was stolen from the captain's cabin, where it was locked for safekeeping, and presumably thrown overboard. At least, we didn't find it."

  "I see you are consulting a book to refresh your memory. What is thisbook?"

  "The ship's log."

  "How does it happen to be in your possession?"

  "The crew appointed me captain. As such, I kept the log-book. Itcontains a full account of the discovery of the bodies, witnessed byall the men."

  "Is it in your writing?"

  "Yes; it is in my writing."

  "You read it to the men, and they signed it?"

  "No; they read it themselves before they signed it."

  After a wrangle as to my having authority to make a record in thelog-book, the prosecuting attorney succeeded in having the bookadmitted as evidence, and read to the jury the entry of August 13.

  Having thus proved the crimes, I was excused, to be recalled later. Thedefense reserving its cross-examination, the doctor from the quarantinestation was called next, and testified to the manner of death. Histestimony was revolting, and bears in no way on the story, save in oneparticular--a curious uniformity in the mutilation of the bodies ofVail and Captain Richardson--a sinister similarity that was infinitelyshocking. In each case the forehead, the two arms, and the abdomen hadreceived a frightful blow. In the case of the Danish girl there wasonly one wound--the injury on the head.