a poor
sleeper, and spent much time at night wandering around.

On the night of the crimes it is probable that he performed his
devotions early, and then got the signal. This is evidenced by
Singleton's finding the axe against the captain's door before midnight.
He had evidently been disturbed. We believe that he intended to kill
the captain and Mr. Turner, but made a mistake in the rooms. He
clearly intended to kill the Danish girl. Several passages in his
Bible, marked with a red cross, showed his inflamed hatred of loose
women; and he believed Karen Hansen to be of that type.

He locked me in, slipping down from the wheel to do so, and pocketing
the key. The night was fairly quiet. He could lash the wheel safely,
and he had in his favor the fact that Oleson, the lookout, was a
slow-thinking Swede who notoriously slept on his watch. He found the
axe, not where he had left it, but back in the case. But the case was
only closed, not locked--Singleton's error.

Armed with the axe, Jones slipped back to the wheel and waited. He had
plenty of time. He had taken his robe from its hiding-place in the
boat, and had it concealed near him with the axe. He was ready, but he
was waiting for another signal. He got it at half-past two. He
admitted the signal and the time, but concealed its nature--I think it
was a shooting star. He killed Vail first, believing it to be Turner,
and making with his axe, the four signs of the cross. Then he went to
the Hansen girl's door. He did not know about the bell, and probably
rang it by accident as he leaned over to listen if Vail still breathed.

The captain, in the mean time, had been watching Singleton. He had
forbidden his entering the after house; if he caught him disobeying he
meant to, put him in irons. He was without shoes or coat, and he sat
waiting on the after companion steps for developments.

It was the captain, probably, whom Karen Hansen mistook for Turner.
Later he went back to the forward companionway, either on his way back
to his cabin, or still with an eye to Singleton's movements.

To the captain there must have appeared this grisly figure in flowing
white, smeared with blood and armed with an axe. The sheet was worn
over Jones's head--a long, narrow slit serving him to see through, and
two other slits freeing his arms. The captain was a brave man, but the
apparition, gleaming in the almost complete darkness, had been on him
before he could do more t