“I watched his rage, unable to utter a single word.  I saw him, after he had searched the dead man’s pockets, raise the inert body with its awful featureless face and drag it to the bulwarks.  Then I rushed forward and faced him.

“In an instant he sprang at me, and I screamed.  But no aid came.  The man Wilson was sleeping soundly in the bows, for the whisky he had given him had been doctored,” went on the narrative.  “Upon his face was a fierce, murderous look such as I had never seen before.  ‘You!’ he screamed, his dark eyes starting from their sockets as he realized that I had been a witness of his cowardly crime.  ‘You have spied upon me, girl!’ he hissed, ‘and you shall die also!’ I sank upon my knees imploring him to spare me, but he only laughed at my entreaty.  ‘See!’ he cried, ’as you saw how he enjoyed his cigar, you may as well see this!’ And with an effort he raised the dead body in his arms, poised it for a moment on the vessel’s side, and then, with a hoarse laugh of triumph, heaved it into the sea.  There was a splash, and then we were alone.  ‘And you!’ he cried in a fierce voice—­’you who have spied upon me—­you will follow!  The water there will close your chattering mouth!’ I shrieked, begged, and implored, but his trembling hands were upon my throat.  First he dragged me to my feet, then he threw me upon my knees, and at last, with that grim brutality which characterizes him, he directed me to go and get a mop and bucket from the forecastle and remove the dark red stains from the chair and deck.  This he actually forced me to do, gloating over my horror as I removed for him the traces of his cowardly crime.  Then, with his hand upon my shoulder, he said, ’Girl!  Recollect that you keep to-night’s work secret.  If not, you shall die a death more painful than that dog has died—­one in which you shall experience all the tortures of the damned.  Recollect, not a single word—­or death!  Now, go to your cabin, and never pry into my affairs again.’

“I went back to my cabin as I was bid, and sat speechless in abject horror.  The fiendish actions of the man who was my guardian frightened me.  And yet I was utterly helpless.  What could I do?  Who in holy Russia would hear me?  Oberg was a power in the Empire; the Czar himself trusted him.  If I spoke, who would believe me; who would heed the words of a defenseless girl whom he would at once declare to be hysterical?  Thus I waited alone in the darkness, watching the lights of the port gleaming across the placid waters until nearly one o’clock, when the gay party returned, and the Baron greeted them merrily as though nothing had happened.  But my heart was frozen within me by the recollection of the awful crime that had been committed.”

* * * * *

“Why!  Now I remember!” cried Muriel, amazed.  “I remember that night quite well, how white you were when you came to my cabin and asked to be allowed to sleep in my spare berth.  You would tell me nothing, and only said you were ill.  None of us had any idea that such a terrible tragedy had been enacted.  But of course the Baron had arranged it all, for it was at his instigation, I recollect, that the crew had been given shore-leave.  Mackintosh suggested that only half the crew should go, but he declared that if Wilson alone were left it would be sufficient.”