ourne for doing up packets of bills. Upon one of these was a
mark of fifty pounds sterling, showing that Jackwell's assets, unless
enormous, could be made to fit in a very small space. He probably carried
all he owned upon his person.

We went through everything in the cabin carefully, but the only thing of
interest discovered was the photograph of a plump young woman torn fairly
in two, the lower half bearing the inscription in Jackwell's handwriting,
"Good riddance to bad rubbish."

I had found this in the chart case and had examined it some minutes
without comment, when Miss Sackett took it from me. She gazed at it a
moment, and cried out, "Why! it's the third mate."

I instantly seized it again and looked carefully at the features, and
then it was plain enough. There he was, in a neat fitting bodice, the
curly blond hair stylishly dressed, and the plump cheeks showing just
the faintest trace of the dimples of our former third officer. I looked
at the back of the photograph. It had the name of a Melbourne artist
upon it, and beneath, in a female hand, the written words, "Yours
lovingly, Belle."

Trunnell heard Jennie's exclamation and came up. He took the picture from
me and gazed long at the face. Then he gave a sigh which sounded like a
blackfish drawing in air, handed it back to me, and went up the
companionway, scratching his head in the manner he did when much
disturbed. He said not a word, nor did he mention Mr. Bell's name, and
that night at supper he never raised his eyes from his plate. Afterward
in the mid-watch he came on the poop and walked fore and aft for three
long hours without so much as speaking to me or asking the man at the
wheel the vessel's course. He finally went below, carrying the odor of
grog along with him. He came on deck many nights after this and walked
fore and aft in silence, as though brooding over some unpleasant subject,
and we were clear of the trade and knocking about in the uncertain
latitudes before he appeared to be anything like himself again.

I avoided any subject relating to the earlier part of the voyage and
tried to cheer him. I thought he had suffered keenly, and was glad
when he stopped drinking and looked me in the eyes without letting his
gaze fall in confusion. Sometimes I caught myself wondering at the
reticence of the men who had rowed him to the burnt wreck that night,
but I found that no one had boarded her except Trunnell and he had
sent the boat astern.