The Thinking Machine Collected Stories Part 98

"You know whose knife it is then?" asked the Captain finally.

"Yes," and the first officer's head dropped forward. "It's mine."

There was a long dead silence. The hands of the first officer were working nervously, with heavy fingers threading in and out. Dr. Maher turned away suddenly and idly fingered some papers on the operator's desk.

Captain Deihl's heavy face grew set and stern. "Did you kill him, Tennell?" he asked.

"No!" Tennell burst out. "No!"

"But it is your knife?"

"It would be useless for me to deny it, sir," replied the first officer, and he arose. "It was given to me by Mr. Forbes, the second officer, only a few weeks ago, and he could identify it instantly. I lost the knife yesterday, and last night-I shall ask you to corroborate this, sir-I posted a notice in the fo'c'sle offering a reward to anyone who should find it and return it to me."

Dr. Maher turned suddenly upon them. "And isn't it true, Mr. Tennell," he demanded, "that you and Ingraham had some-some serious disagreement a few days ago?"

Again the first officer's face blanched. "That is true, yes," he replied steadily. "It was a matter of ship's discipline. This was Mr. Ingraham's second trip with us, and on other ships he had been allowed certain liberties which the discipline of this ship compelled me to curtail. There was a disagreement, yes."

Dr. Maher nodded as if satisfied, and turned again to the desk.

Captain Deihl stood staring straight into the eyes of his first officer for a time, and then cleared his throat. "I want to believe you, Tennell," he admitted at last. "I have known you and believed in you for fourteen years. Now tell me why you call me here, show me this, and then admit things which-which you must confess make it look black for you. Now, Harry Tennell, if you ever in your life told me the truth, tell it now-man to man!"

The first officer read the friendliness behind the stern, commanding voice, and there was a grateful softening of the glaring eyes. "Man to man, John Deihl, I'll tell you the truth; but it's hard to believe, and I doubt if you will understand it," he said slowly, deliberately. "I did have a row with this man," and he indicated the crumpled figure in the chair,-"a nasty row in the hearing of half a dozen of the crew. That was several days ago. To-day I came here in the course of my duties, and found him like this. I recognized the knife instantly as mine-the one I had lost. I am not a coward, John Deihl,-no man knows that better than you do,-yet for a moment I was overcome by a feeling of terror. Here was the fact of the quarrel, my knife as the weapon of death, myself alone in the cabin with this man while the body was still warm. It all flashed across my mind in instant-I was frightened at the utter helplessness of my position. No one had seen me enter this cabin, I knew, and the thought came that perhaps I might leave it without being seen, keep my mouth shut, and allow some one else to discover this." The first officer paused and sought vainly to read the expressions on the faces of the two men before him.

"I even went so far as to draw the knife out of the wound, with the purpose of flinging it overboard," the first officer continued slowly; "then my senses came back. I knew my duty again. I replaced the knife in the wound, precisely as I found it, and called you. You are a severe man, but you're a just man, John Deihl, and you know I am not the man to stab another in the back; you know, John Deihl, that fourteen years with me as shipmate and fellow officer has never shown you a weak spot in my courage; you know me, John Deihl and I know you." The voice dropped suddenly. "That's all."

Captain Deihl had stood motionless, with stern, set face and keen, cold eyes searching those of the first officer. At last he reached out a hand and gripped the one that met it. "I believe you, Harry," he said quietly.

Dr. Maher turned quickly and regarded the two with a slight cynical uplifting of his lip. "I understand then," he said unpleasantly, "that this is to be a matter of friendship rather than of evidence?"

The first officer's face flamed, and he took one step toward the surgeon, with clenched fists.

"Go to your cabin, Mr. Tennell!" ordered Captain Deihl curtly. "Remain there till further orders come from me!"

The first officer paused, involuntarily straightened himself, and lifted one hand to his cap. "Yes, sir," he said.

"And you are not to mention this matter to anyone," Captain Deihl directed.

"I understand, sir."

But news travels quickly aboard ship; so that within less than an hour the tragedy had become a matter of general discussion. Miss Bellingdame was reclining comfortably in a deck chair, when a casual acquaintance, Clarke Matthews, dropped into a seat beside her, and informed her of it. She struggled to her feet, stood staring at him dully for an instant with whitening face, swayed, and fell p.r.o.ne to the deck. It was fully half an hour before the stewardess and her a.s.sistants saw the eyelids flutter and open weakly; and at the end of another half hour the stewardess sought out the Captain. She found him at his desk in his cabin, with Second Officer Forbes.

"We must get those dispatches off, Mr. Forbes," the Captain was saying. "Have the ship canva.s.sed, first and second cabin, steerage and crew, to see if by any chance there is a man, woman, or child who can operate the wireless. Attend to it at once!"

Forbes touched his cap and went out. The Captain turned to the stewardess inquiringly.

"Please, sir, Miss Bellingdame is almost insane from the shock of the murder," the stewardess informed him. "It's hard to make her keep in her state room, let alone the berth. Dr. Maher doesn't seem to be able to do her any good. She insists on seeing the body."

"Why?" asked Captain Deihl in surprise. "Was she acquainted with Ingraham?"

"She was engaged to be married to him, sir," replied the stewardess. "Poor child! I don't know what to do for her."

Captain Deihl stared at her blankly for an instant, then arose suddenly and accompanied her to Miss Bellingdame's state room. She was sitting up in her berth, pallid as the sheets about her. One of the stewardess's a.s.sistants sat near trying to soothe her.

"Is it true, Captain?" she demanded.

Captain Deihl nodded grimly.

She extended her hands convulsively and clutched his arm, then her head sank forward against it and she sobbed bitterly. "Do you know who-who did it?" shee asked at last.

"We don't know, madam," he replied gently. "We are doing all we can; but--"

"Somebody told me your first officer had been arrested," she interrupted suddenly. "He is tall and dark, with a heavy moustache, isn't he?"

"Yes," replied the Captain. "Why?"

For a little while she was silent as she struggled to regain control of her voice, and then: "May I say something to you in private, Captain?"

"Do you know-do you suspect--?" he began.

"I must!" she insisted.

At a gesture from Captain Deihl the stewardess and her a.s.sistant left them alone together. Fifteen minutes later he emerged and summoned Second Officer Forbes to his cabin.

"Mr. Forbes, proceed at once to Mr. Tennell's cabin and formally place him under arrest," he ordered shortly. "You had better put him in irons, and keep an armed guard beside him day and night until we land. Don't take any chances with him."

"Yes, sir."

Two hours later Second Officer Forbes appeared in the cabin again. "We have canva.s.sed the ship, sir," he reported. "There is not a wireless operator aboard, or even a telegraph operator."

"What is our speed?"

"A little better than seventeen knots, sir."

"We should land then about five o'clock to-morrow afternoon," the Captain mused. "Very well, Mr. Forbes; we shall have to do without an operator."

Captain Deihl paced slowly, thoughtfully, back and forth across the bridge. Above the stars glittered coldly down upon the silent, sinister sea as it slid past the Ura.n.u.s in green, oily swells. The encompa.s.sing night was unbroken by a single glint of light save that which Nature gave grudgingly. The Captain gazed upon it all with unseeing eyes and grimly set lips.

Two bells sounded-one o'clock. As the echo of the last stroke was borne away on the wind Captain Deihl suddenly became conscious of the sharp, venomous hiss of the wireless. The wireless! He paused incredulously, and glanced aloft. A spark sputtered at the top of the foremast, winked and flashed and spat viciously in the rhythmic dots and dashes of the Continental code. The wireless was working! Some one was sending! The Captain knew that no sound accompanied the receipt of a message, even with the automatic attachment; therefore that sputtering and hissing was some one sending, and if that was true it meant--

He ran down the ladder to the hurricane deck, and disappeared down a companion-way to the deck below.

Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen listened to Captain Deihl's recital of the circ.u.mstances surrounding the murder of Charles Ingraham, with a slight frown of annoyance on his wizened face. As he talked the man of the sea turned from time to time to Dr. Maher for confirmation of the facts. Each time such corroboration was given with a short nod of the head.

"Now, there are a few other little things," Captain Deihl continued deliberately, "that are not known to Dr. Maher here. For instance, I personally went to the fo'c'sle to see if Tennell had posted a notice there offering a reward for the knife on the night before the murder, and found that statement correct. Here is the notice. You will see the description fits perfectly the knife with which the murder was committed."

The Thinking Machine accepted a sheet of paper which Deihl offered, glanced at it, then handed it back.