The prosecution questioned Burns about the axe and its disappearance.

“Who suggested that the axe be kept in the captain’s cabin?”

“Leslie, acting as captain.”

“Who had the key?”

“I carried it on a strong line around my neck.”

“Whose arrangement was that?”

“Leslie’s.  He had the key to Mr. Singleton’s cabin, and I carried this one.  We divided the responsibility.”

“Did you ever give the key to any one?”

“No, sir.”

“Did it ever leave you?”

“Not until it was taken away.”

“When was that?”

“On Saturday morning, August 22, shortly before dawn.”

“Tell what happened.”

“I was knocked down from behind, while I was standing at the port forward corner of the after house.  The key was taken from me while I was unconscious.”

“Did you ever see the white object that has been spoken of by the crew?”

“No, sir.  I searched the deck one night when Adams, the lookout, raised an alarm.  We found nothing except—­”

“Go on.”

“He threw down a marlinespike at something moving in the bow.  The spike disappeared.  We couldn’t find it, although we could see where it had struck the deck.  Afterwards we found a marlinespike hanging over the ship’s side by a lanyard.  It might have been the one we looked for.”

“Explain ‘lanyard."’

“A cord—­a sort of rope.”

“It could not have fallen over the side and hung there?”

“It was fastened with a Blackwell hitch.”

“Show us what you mean.”

On cross-examination by Singleton’s attorney, Burns was forced to relate the incident of the night before his injury—­that Mrs. Johns had asked to see the axe, and he had shown it to her.  He maintained stoutly that she had not been near the bunk, and that the axe was there when he locked the door.

Adams, called, testified to seeing a curious, misty-white object on the forecastle-head.  It had seemed to come over the bow.  The marlinespike he threw had had no lanyard.

Mrs. Turner and Miss Lee escaped with a light examination.  Their evidence amounted to little, and was practically the same.  They had retired early, and did not rouse until I called them.  They remained in their rooms most of the time after that, and were busy caring for Mr. Turner, who had been ill.  Mrs. Turner was good enough to say that I had made them as safe and as comfortable as possible.

The number of witnesses to be examined, and the searching grilling to which most of them were subjected, would have dragged the case to interminable length, had it not been for the attitude of the judges, who discouraged quibbling and showed a desire to reach the truth with the least possible delay.  One of the judges showed the wide and unbiased attitude of the court by a little speech after an especially venomous contest.