, 1915-04-08

guided partly by the bow light, partly
by my knowledge Of the yacht. | led
the way across the deck. The forward
house was closed and locked, and no
knocking produced any indication of
nfe- The after house we found not
only locked, but barred across with
strips OF wood nailed into place. The
f~orecastle was likewise closed. 1t was
a dead ship.
NO inquire ~reappearing to alarm him,
Mac took the drawing out of his
pocket and focused the fiashlight on it.
This cross by the mainmast." he
said-"that would be whereY'
Right behind you. there
he walked to the mast, and examined
carefully around its base. There was
nothing there, and even now / do not
know to what that cross alluded, IN
less poor Schwartz!
Then this other one-forward, you
call 1t, don't you? Suppose We locate
that
All expectation of the Waterman
having now died, we went forward on
the port side to the approximate loca-
ton of the cross. This being in the
neighborhood where Mac had thought
he saw something move, We approach.
ed with extreme caution. But nothing
more ominous was discovered than the
port lifeboat, nothing more ghostly
heard than the occasional creak with
which it rocked in its davits.
The lifeboat seemed to be indicated
by the cross 1t swung almost shout
der high on McWhirter. We looked
under and around it. with a growing
feeling that we had misread the sig
nificance of the crosses, or that the
sinister record extended to a time be
fore the she devil' of the Turner line
was dressed in white and turned into
a lady.
I was feeling underneath the boat.
with a sense of a%bsurdity that Nc
Whittier put into words. II only hope"
he said, that the Waterman does not
wake up now and see us. He'd be
justified in filling US with lead OIL put
ting US in straitjackets."
But / had discovered something.
Mac" 1 said, 'some one has been at
this boat within the last few minutes"
"WhyT'
Take your revolver and watch the
deck. "One of the barecas"-
whats that?"
"One Of the water barrels has been
upset, and the plug is out. 1t is leak
ing into the boat. 1t is leaking fast.
and there's only a gallon or SO in the
bottom. Give me the light"
The contents of the boat revealed the
truth of what l had said, The boat
was In confusion. Its cover had been
thrown back, and tins of biscuit, bail
ers. boathooks and extra rowlocks were
jumbled together In confusion. The
barecas lay On its side. and its plug
had been either knocked or drawn out
McWhirter was for turning to In
spect the boat. but | ordered him stern
ly to watch the deck. He was inclined
to laugh at my caution, which, he
claimed, was a quality in me he had
not suspected. He lounged against b
rail near me and in spite of his chaff
kept a keen enough lookout.
The barecas of water were dashed
amidships. In the bow and stern were
small air tight compartments, and in
the stern was also Il small locker from
which the biscuit tins had been taken.
/ was about to abandon my search
when l saw something cleaning in the
locker and reached in and drew 1t out
1t appeared to be an ordinary white
sheet, but its presence there was curl
GUS. l turned the light on. 1t was
covered with dark brown stains.
Even now the memory of that sheet
turns me Ill. | shook it out, and Mac
at my exclamation came to me- 1t
was not a sheet at all-that is, not a
whole one. 1t was a circular piece of
white cloth. on which In black Were
curious marks, a six pointed star pre-
dominating. There were others-a
crescent. a crude attempt to draw
what might be either a dog or a lamb
and a cross. From edge to edge 1t
was smeared with blood.
OF what followed just after both
McWhirter and | are vague. There
seemed to be simultaneously a yell of
fury from the rigging overhead and
the crash of n falling body on the deck
near us. Then we were closing with
u kicking, biting. screaming thing that
bore me to the ground, extinguishing
the little electric flash, and that, rising
suddenly from under me, had Nc
Whirter In the air and almost over
board before l caught him. So dazed
were we by the onslaught that the
thing-whatever it w~as-could have es-
capped and left us none the wiser. But.
although 1t eluded us In the darkness,
1t did not leave. 1t was there, within
pering to itself. searching for some
thing-the sheet. AS | steadied Mac 1t
passed me. | caught at 1t. lmmedi-
ately the struggle began all over again.
But this time we had the advantage
and kept 1t. After a battle that seem
ed to last all night, and that was ac-
tually fought all over that part of the