a mere tin box, containing a
candle, the dim flame visible through numerous punctures. It promised
poor guidance enough, yet emitted sufficient light to show the way
around in that darkness below. So as not to arouse suspicion, I
wrapped the thing in a blanket, and, with Watkins beside me, started
aft. Dorothy must have been asleep already, for there was no sign of
movement as we passed where she was lying. Neither of us spoke until
my hand was on the companion door ready to slide it open.

"I'll not be long below," I said soberly. "And meanwhile you keep a
sharp watch on deck. Better go forward and see that your lookout men
are awake, and then come back here. Likely I'll have a story to tell
you by that time. The wind seems lessening."

"Yes, sir; shall we shake out a reef in the foresail?"

"Not yet, Watkins. Wait until I learn what secret is below. An hour
will make little difference."

With the lantern held before me, its faint light barely piercing the
intense darkness, I stood on the first step leading down into the
cabin, and slid the door back into place behind me. I had no sense of
fear, yet felt a nervous tension to which I was scarcely accustomed.
For the instant I hesitated to descend into the gloom of that
interior. The constant nerve strain under which I had labored for days
and nights, made me shrink from groping blindly forward, searching for
the unknown. The very darkness seemed haunted, and I could not drive
from my memory the figure of that dead Captain, whose life had ended
there. It even seemed to me I could smell foulness in the air; that I
was breathing in cholera. Yet I drove this terror from me with a
laugh, remembering the open ports through which the fresh wind was
blowing; and cursing myself for a fool, began the descent, guided by
the flickering rays of light.

I was conscious of a quickening pulse, as I peered about me in the
gloom, every article of furniture assuming grotesque form. The
rustling of a bit of cloth over one of the open ports caused me to
face about suddenly, while every creak of the vessel seemed the echo
of a human voice. A blanket in the form of a roll lay on the divan
where I had found Captain Paradilla, and for a moment, as I stared at
it, dimly visible in a ray of light, I imagined this was his
motionless figure. Indeed, I was so strung up, it required all my
reserve of courage to persevere, and traverse the black deck. My mind
was fixed on a great chest in the Ca