Part 14 (1/2)
The bodies of the dead were brought on deck and sewed into canvas, and later, with appropriate services, placed in the jolly-boat, it being the intention, later on, to tow the boat behind us. Mr. Turner insisted that the bodies be buried at sea, and, on the crew opposing this, retired to his cabin, announcing that he considered the position of the men a mutiny.
Some feeling having arisen among the women of the party that I might know more of the crimes than was generally supposed, having been in the after house at the time they were committed, and having no references, I this afternoon voluntarily surrendered myself to Burns, acting first mate. The men, however, refused to accept this surrender, only two, Adams and McNamara, favoring it. I expect to give myself up to the police at the nearest port, until the matter is thoroughly probed.
The axe is locked in the captain's cabin.
(Signed) RALPH LESLIE.
John Robert Burns Charles Klineordlinger (Jones) William McNamara Witnesses Carl L. Clarke Joseph Q. Adams John Oleson Tom MacKenzie Obadiah Williams
CHAPTER XII
THE FIRST MATE TALKS
Williams came up on deck late that afternoon, with a scared face, and announced that Mr. Turner had locked himself in his cabin, and was raving in delirium on the other side of the door. I sent Burns down having decided, in view of Mrs. Johns's accusation, to keep away from the living quarters of the family. Burns's report corroborated what Williams had said. Turner was in the grip of delirium tremens, and the Ella was without owner or officers.
Turner refused to open either door for us. As well as we could make out, he was moving rapidly but almost noiselessly up and down the room, muttering to himself, now and then throwing himself on the bed, only to get up at once. He rang his bell a dozen times, and summoned Williams, only, in reply to the butler's palpitating knock, to stand beyond the door and refuse to open it or to voice any request. The situation became so urgent that finally I was forced to go down, with no better success.
Mrs. Turner dragged herself across, on the state of affairs being reported to her, and, after two or three abortive attempts, succeeded in getting a reply from him.
”Mars.h.!.+” she called. ”I want to talk to you. Let me in.”
”They'll get us,” he said craftily.
”Us? Who is with you?”
”Vail,” he replied promptly. ”He's here talking. He won't let me sleep.”
”Tell him to give you the key and you will keep it for him so no one can get him,” I prompted. I had had some experience with such cases in the hospital.
She tried it without any particular hope, but it succeeded immediately.
He pushed the key out under the door, and almost at once we heard him throw himself on the bed, as if satisfied that the problem of his security was solved.
Mrs. Turner held the key out to me, but I would not take it.
”Give it to Williams,” I said. ”You must understand, Mrs. Turner, that I cannot take it.”
She was a woman of few words, and after a glance at my determined face she turned to the butler.
”You will have to look after Mr. Turner, Williams. See that he is comfortable, and try to keep him in bed.”
Williams put out a trembling hand, but, before he took the key, Turner's voice rose petulantly on the other side of the door.
”For G.o.d's sake, Wilmer,” he cried plaintively, ”get out and let me sleep I haven't slept for a month.”
Williams gave a whoop of fear, and ran out of the cabin, crying that the s.h.i.+p was haunted and that Vail had come back. From that moment, I believe, the after house was the safest spot on the s.h.i.+p. To my knowledge, no member of the crew so much as pa.s.sed it on the starboard side, where Vail's and Turner's cabins were situated. It was the one good turn the owner of the Ella did us on that hideous return journey; for, during most of the sixteen days that it took us to get back, he lay in his cabin, alternating the wild frenzy of delirium tremens with quieter moments when he glared at us with crafty, murderous eyes, and picked incessantly at the bandages that tied him down. Not an instant did he sleep, that we could discover; and always, day or night, Vail was with him, and they were quarreling. The four women took care of him as best they could. For a time they gave him the bromides I prepared, taking my medical knowledge without question. In the horror of the situation, curiosity had no place, and cla.s.s distinctions were forgotten. That great leveler, a common trouble, put Henrietta Sloane, the stewardess, and the women of the party at the same table in the after house, where none ate, and placed the responsibility for the s.h.i.+p, although, I was nominally in command, on the shoulders of all the men. And there sprang up among them a sort of esprit de corps, curious under the circ.u.mstances, and partly explained, perhaps, by the belief that in imprisoning Singleton they had the murderer safely in hand.
What they thought of Turner's possible connection with the crime, I do not know.
Personally, I was convinced that Turner was guilty. Perhaps, lulled into a false security by the incarceration of the two men, we unconsciously relaxed our vigilance. But by the first night the crew were somewhat calmer. Here and there a pipe was lighted, and a plug of tobacco went the rounds. The forecastle supper, served on deck, was eaten; and Charlie Jones, securing a permission that I thought it best to grant, went forward and painted a large black cross on the side of the jolly-boat, and below it the date, August 13, 1911. The crew watched in respectful silence.