is bunk?"

"Disordered--horrible. He was almost hacked to pieces."

"Go on."

"I ran back and got my revolver. I thought there had been a mutiny-"

"Confine yourself to what you saw and did. The court is not interested
in what you thought."

"I am only trying to explain what I did. I ran back to the storeroom
and got my revolver, and ran back through the chart-room to the after
companion, which had a hood. I thought that if any one was lying in
ambush, the hood would protect me until I could get to the deck. I
told the helmsman what had happened, and ran forward. Mr. Singleton
was on the forecastle-head. We went below together, and found the
captain lying at the foot of the forward companion, also dead."

"At this time, had you called the owner of the ship?"

"No. I called him then. But I could not rouse him."

"Explain what you mean by that."

"He had been drinking."

There followed a furious wrangle over this point; but the prosecuting
attorney succeeded in having question and answer stand.

"What did you do next?"

"The mate had called the crew. I wakened Mrs. Turner, Miss Lee, and
Mrs. Johns, and then went to the chart-room to call the women there.
The door was open an inch or so. I received no answer to my knock, and
pulled it open. Karen Hansen, the maid, was dead on the floor, and the
stewardess was in her bunk, in a state of collapse."

"State where you found the axe with which the crimes were committed."

"It was found in the stewardess's bunk."

"Where is this axe now?"

"It was stolen from the captain's cabin, where it was locked for safe
keeping, and presumably thrown overboard. At least, we didn't find it."

"I see you are consulting a book to refresh your memory. What is this
book?"

"The ship's log."

"How does it happen to be in your possession?"

"The crew appointed me captain. As such, I kept the log-book. It
contains a full account of the discovery of the bodies, witnessed by
all the men."

"Is it in your writing?"

"Yes; it is in my writing."

"You read it to the men, and they signed it?"

"No; they read it themselves before they signed it."

After a wrangle as to my having authority to make a record in the
log-book, the prosecuting attorney succeeded in having the book
admitted as evidence, and read to the jury the entry of August 13.

Having thus proved the crimes, I was excused, to be recalled later. The
defense reserving its cross-examination, th