"I was locked in."

She stooped quickly and looked at the lock.

"You broke it open?"

"Partly, at the last. I heard--" I stopped. I did not want to
tell her what I had heard. But she knew.

"You heard--Karen, when she screamed?"

"Yes. I was aroused before that,--I do not know how,--and found
I was locked in. I thought it might be a joke--forecastle hands
are fond of joking, and they resented my being brought here to sleep.
I took out some of the screws with my knife, and--then I broke the
door."

"You saw no one?"

"It was dark; I saw and heard no one."

"But, surely--the man at the wheel--"

"Hush," I warned her; "he is there. He heard something, but the
helmsman cannot leave the wheel."

She was stooping to the lock again.

"You are sure it was locked?"