utting the door): There, then! But what is this that no one
else must hear?

Krap: Just this--that I believe Aune intends to let the "Indian Girl"
go to the bottom with every mother's son on board.

Bernick: Good God!--what makes you think that?

Krap: I cannot account for it any other way, sir.

Bernick: Well, tell me as briefly as you can

Krap: I will. You know yourself how slowly the work has gone on in the
yard since we got the new machines and the new inexperienced hands?

Bernick: Yes, yes.

Krap: But this morning, when I went down there, I noticed that the
repairs to the American boat had made extraordinary progress; the great
hole in the bottom--the rotten patch, you know--

Bernick: Yes, yes--what about it?

Krap: Was completely repaired--to all appearance at any rate, covered
up--looked as good as new. I heard that Aune himself had been working
at it by lantern light the whole night.

Bernick: Yes, yes--well?

Krap: I turned it over in my head for a bit; the hands were away at
their breakfast, so I found an opportunity to have a look around the
boat, both outside and in, without anyone seeing me. I had a job to get
down to the bottom through the cargo, but I learned the truth. There is
something very suspicious going on, Mr. Bernick.

Bernick: I cannot believe it, Krap. I cannot and will not believe such
a thing of Aune.

Krap: I am very sorry--but it is the simple truth. Something very
suspicious is going on. No new timbers put in, as far as I could see,
only stopped up and tinkered at, and covered over with sailcloth and
tarpaulins and that sort of thing--an absolute fraud. The "Indian Girl"
will never get to New York; she will go to the bottom like a cracked
pot.

Bernick: This is most horrible! But what can be his object, do you
suppose?

Krap: Probably he wants to bring the machines into discredit--wants to
take his revenge--wants to force you to take the old hands on again.

Bernick: And to do this he is willing to sacrifice the lives of all on
board.

Krap: He said the other day that there were no men on board the "Indian
Girl"--only wild beasts.

Bernick: Yes, but--apart from that--has he no regard for the great loss
of capital it would mean?

Krap: Aune does not look upon capital with a very friendly eye, Mr.
Bernick.

Bernick: That is perfectly true; he is an agitator and a fomenter of
discontent; but such an unscrupulous thing as this--Look here, Krap;
you must look into