The Winslow mail., 1900-09-20
"I hurried forward. not expecting

uurrleu forward, not expecting
to find anyone, so was startled when
l stumbled upon young man sprawl
ing in pool of blood and moaning
feebly. l called for help and tried to
bolster him up. My partner at the
whist table now appeared and several
servants. We found he had been
stabbed, or rather slashed across the
neck, the cut extending down to his
right shoulder. But as it had missed
the jugular and there were two doc
tors aboard beside the boat physi-
clan, we believed it was not fatal.
"Restoratives were given, the flow
of blood checked, and the victim
placed in his berth. When questioned
as to how it happened he could only
tell us that as he was about to en-
ter the passage leading to his state
room he experienced a shock, burn
ing sensation, and realized that an
old man with white hair and beard,
wrapped in a long, light garment
was pushing by him. The knife was
picked up a few feet inside the pass
ageway. 1t was a common knife and
Uore the BOAT mark.
II took the captain aside and re-
lated the murder on the Fall River
boat of a year previous. He remem-
bered it, and at once took steps for
most thorough search. But, as in
the other case, no old man was found.
Excepting a judge of the supreme
court, one or two congressman and sew
eral well-known merchants of New
York city, no men of advanced age
were on board.
"You never saw ruch nervous
crowd. Although the boat was now
brilliantly lighted, no one would go
about alone. The servants were eX-
tremely agitated, and moved to obey
orders in pairs. The next aay saw no
abatement in the dread of the old man
who had vanished so completely.
"Once wnen Judge S approached
two youngsters in the forward deck I
noticed that one of them reached for
his hip. Several of the women were in
Mysteries, and one of them on learn
ing my identity, clung to my arm all
day long. And I must admit that I
felt little shaky.
Here we were in boat out of sight
of land, knowing that somewhere in
our midst was a murderer all the more
terrible because he was not known.
Passengers with drawn revolvers
ransacled each stateroom while the
boat officials examined every inch of
the vessel. AS night drew on again
the fear increased. Who next? was the
look in every eye. Armed watchers
guarded the more remote parts of the
boat while the passengers, to a per-
son, almost huddled together in the sa-
loon.
"Along abont two o'clock I deter
mined to take a little scout about on
my own hook. and slipping on some
'sneaks,' with loaded revolver in my
hand, l set out. l must have prowled
about for over an hour when [ reached
a passage leading back to the cabin.
As l was about to enter it I remem-
bered it was the same one through
which the murderer fed on the night
before.
"a light was dimly burning near the
center of the passage and under it I
could discern a watehman, who was
evidently asleep. For some reason I
looked behind me. All was clear, but
as l turned again 1 experienced the
greatest shock of my life. For bending
over the recumbent guard was the old
man in the linen duster with wicked
looking knife upraised.
81 let out a yell that ought to have
reached the mainland, and thrusting
forward my revolver, let go. With an
answering shrek the old man turned