Part 5 (1/2)

CHAPTER V

THE MARY ELLEN

During the silence that followed the rather sudden ending of the old salt's story, Ruth and Alice looked at each other with wonder in their eyes. On all sides of them could be heard the clicking of the moving picture cameras, the loud directions issued by the men who were managing the different little dramas, and occasionally the sound of shots from the cowboy play that was going on in front of where our friends were seated on the bench, though at some distance away, for the studio was large.

”But that can't be all of it,” said Alice, at length.

”All of what, Miss?” Jack Jepson asked.

”The mystery.”

”That's all there is to any mystery, Miss,” he said. ”A mystery is a mystery, an' if it isn't solved, it's a mystery still, an' n.o.body can make any more of it. Th' captain and Mike Tullane completely disappeared, an' were never heard of afterward. That's th' mystery, an'

all there is to it, jest as I told you.”

”But about yourself?” asked Ruth. ”You said you were put in chains, under arrest, as the ringleader of the mutiny.”

”So I was.”

”But what became of you?”

”Well, I escaped, Miss. It may not be a very nice thing to confess, but I escaped. Th' British s.h.i.+p took us to a jail on some island--I forget th' name of it. Anyhow I was locked up, an' so were a lot of th' others.

We were tried, an' I was accused of startin' th' mutiny. Some of th'

worst men on th' s.h.i.+p put th' blame on me, an' I wasn't a bit guilty.

But it was no use in denyin' it. They was all banded together t' accuse me t' save themselves. I was found guilty, though I wasn't at all, an' I was sentenced to a long imprisonment. I just escaped hanging by a hair, for mutiny on th' high seas is a serious crime.

”But I was innocent, an' I knew it, an' when I found th' trial goin'

against me, I took a chance that offered, an' planned t' escape. I found a French vessel puttin' t' sea an' as they was short handed I signed on.

Since then I've been in many vessels, but I always keep away from English ones, and from English ports, for I would be arrested the minute I set my foot on sh.o.r.e in one. A big reward is out for me.”

”How long ago was all this?” asked Ruth.

”Oh, some years.”

”But isn't the unjust charge outlawed now?” Alice wanted to know.

”I'm afraid not, Miss. Such things are never outlawed. I daren't go t'

an English port, an' that's hampered me. I have to take what berths I can get.”

”Can't you disprove the mutiny charge?” asked Ruth.

”Not unless some of them involved was to confess, Miss. An' land knows where those fellers are now. They've disappeared with th' captain an'

Mike Tullane. Of course if I could find either one of them, I could prove my innocence, an' then I'd be free t' go where I pleased. But I've about given _that_ up, Miss.

”So I sort of come t' anchor in th' Sailors' Snug Harbor, an' when I heard about this movin' picture business, and th' chance it gave t' make a little money, I took it. But when it comes t' doin' some crime for it, I draws th' line. As I said, I've always lived honest, man and boy, for many years, an' that one charge is th' only one against me. I'm not goin' t' take them papers, and subst.i.tute false ones.”