On reaching the forward cabin, I turned to the table to see if there happened to be a bite of anything to eat upon it. There always had been in days past. In the darkness I could not tell, and I opened the door leading aft to see if I could get a little light from the captain’s room. The creaking of the straining bulkheads blended with the noise from the deck and in the semi-darkness made by Benson’s lamplight streaming through a door well aft, I seemed to hear the voices of the murdered as the shadows moved upon the deck. A figure flitted past me toward the door on the other side, and for a moment I believed I saw a ghost. The next instant I sprang across the deck and seized it.

“Let me go, Mr. Gore. Don’t stop me,” said Miss Waters.{230}

“Good God, are you still alive?” I asked, more for something to say than anything else.

She raised her hand to her head and leaned against the bulkhead, sobbing.

“Yes, I’m alive,” she said, controlling herself, “I was not taught the trade of murder.”

“I didn’t mean that,” I said, hastily, and I drew her to me. As I did so I felt a bandage upon her wrist.

“Are you hurt?” I asked. “Has he injured you by trying to cut you?”

“No, I did it myself. It was the only way I had—I used his knife on both arteries. But why torture me with it—”

I said nothing for a moment. The anguish she suffered was clear to me. She continued in a low, strained voice which wrenched me the more.

“He only insists that I belong to him, him alone—that is all—and he keeps me with him nearly all the time. I am his wife without any form of ceremony. Otherwise I’m well enough.”{231}

“Yes, it’s either that, or worse,” I spoke haltingly, yet with an effort at comforting her.

“You might have killed me,” she sobbed, “you said you cared for me, and how did you show it—by letting me live like this?”

“It isn’t easy to kill the woman you love.”

“And, oh, I can’t go over the side. I can’t go down into that black void beneath. It seems so horrible to think of it, the endless blackness, the vastness of it, the loneliness of this great ocean. No, I must go on, I must live. I could have killed myself with the knife, but he found me and tied up the cuts—No, it’s no use—let me go—”

“I’ll let you go,” I said, “but you needn’t hurry away. There’s no one coming below for some time and you might as well talk with me while we have the opportunity. I intend to get you out of the ship in a short time.”

She listened and grasped the edge of the bulkhead.

“How can you? Can you get me into{232} a small boat? They would certainly get us before we could row away.”

“I haven’t decided upon the manner yet,” I said, “but the time will be here shortly, and you must help me. There are many ways of getting clear when we get close to the beach.”

“But you are not to get ashore. You are to die with the rest. I heard him tell Johnson so the other night after the poisoning among the men. They are going to get rid of nearly everybody by leaving them upon the ship when she is set on fire. I’m sorry for you, as sorry as I can feel with my own trouble upon me, and I’m glad to be able to tell you, Mr. Gore.”

“You are telling me what I long suspected,” I answered, “but Benson is not a great sailor. He knows very little indeed of the ways of ships, although he seems to be informed very well upon matters of rascality. I think he’ll make a little mistake before he finishes. I suppose you are to go with him?”

“Yes, he will take me along until he tires{233} of me, I suppose. Then I’ll find the same fate as the rest.”

“Has he told anything of his future plans?” I asked.

“Only that when you get them within thirty or forty miles of the coast, they will take to the small boats.............