“This key, Dr. Leslie, do you know where it is now?”

“Yes; I have it.”

“Will you tell how it came into your possession?”

“Certainly.  I picked it up on the deck, a night or so after the murders.  Miss Lee had dropped it.”  I caught Elsa Lee’s eye, and she gave me a warm glance of gratitude.

“Have you the key with you?”

“Yes.”  I produced it.

“Are you a football player, Doctor?”

“I was.”

“I thought I recalled you.  I have seen you play several times.  In spite of our friend the attorney for the commonwealth, I do not believe we will need to call character witnesses for you.  Did you see Miss Lee pick up the key to the storeroom in Mr. Turner’s room?”

“Yes.”

“Did it occur to you at the time that the key had any significance?”

“I wondered how it got there.”

“You say you listened inside the locked door, and heard no sound, but felt a board rise up under your knee.  A moment or two later, when you called the prisoner, he was intoxicated, and reeled.  Do you mean to tell us that a drunken man could have made his way in the darkness, through a cabin filled with chairs, tables, and a piano, in absolute silence?”

The prosecuting attorney was on his feet in an instant, and the objection was sustained.  I was next shown the keys, club, and file taken from Singleton’s mattress.  “You have identified these objects as having been found concealed in the prisoner’s mattress.  Do any of these keys fit the captain’s cabin?”

“No.”

“Who saw the prisoner during the days he was locked in his cabin?”

“I saw him occasionally.  The cook saw him when he carried him his meals.”

“Did you ever tell the prisoner where the axe was kept?”

“No.”

“Did the members of the crew know?”

“I believe so.  Yes.”

“Was the fact that Burns carried the key to the captain’s cabin a matter of general knowledge?”

“No.  The crew knew that Burns and I carried the keys; they did not know which one each carried, unless—­”

“Go on, please.”

“If any one had seen Burns take Mrs. Johns forward and show her the axe, he would have known.”

“Who were on deck at that time?”

“All the crew were on deck, the forecastle being closed.  In the crow’s-nest was McNamara; Jones was at the wheel.”

“From the crow’s-nest could the lookout have seen Burns and Mrs. Johns going forward?”

“No.  The two houses were connected by an awning.”

“What could the helmsman see?”

“Nothing forward of the after house.”

The prosecution closed its case with me.  The defense, having virtually conducted its case by cross-examination of the witnesses already called, contented itself with producing a few character witnesses, and “rested.”  Goldstein made an eloquent plea of “no case,” and asked the judge so to instruct the jury.