"Do you know what I think?" she said slowly. "I think you have
hypnotized the crew, as you did me--at first. Why has no one
remembered that you were in the after house last night, that you
found poor Wilmer Vail, that you raised the alarm, that you
discovered the captain and Karen? Why should I not call the men
here and remind them of all that?"

"I do not believe you will. They know I was locked in the
storeroom. The door--the lock--"

"You could have locked yourself in."

"You do not know what you are saying!"

But I had angered her, and she went on cruelly:--

"Who are you, anyhow? You are not a sailor. You came here and were
taken on because you told a hard-luck story. How do we know that
you came from a hospital? Men just out of prison look as you did.
Do you know what we called you, the first two days out? We called
you Elsa's jail-bird And now, because you have dominated the crew,
we are in your hands!"

"Do Mrs. Turner and Miss Lee think that?"

"They feel as I do. This is a picked crew men the Turner line has
employed for years."

"You are very brave, Mrs. Johns," I said. "If I were what you think