“Don’t take it that way, Captain!” protested Don Winslow, earnestly. “You weren’t to blame. And as for the notion of a murder attempt—wouldn’t a killer have used something surer than a blackjack and chloroform? Those things are a thief’s weapons.”
“Exactly, Commander!” spoke the deep voice of Michael Splendor. “Ye’ve named the means and the motive all in the same breath. A theft it was, to be sure; and if ye’ll just glance about the place, ye’ll see quick enough what the rascal stole.”
A startled silence fell upon the other five persons in the cabin. It was broken when Don, struggling up from his chair, cried sharply:
“The enlistment records! They’re gone, the whole stack of them!”
VI
MURDER BELOW DECKS
One mystery had been solved, but it had given rise to a more sinister problem. Michael Splendor was the one who pointed this out, as Don Winslow and his friends sat that evening at the officers’ mess.
How, he asked, could the thief have known Don was making a search of the enlistment records?
There were various answers offered on the spur of the moment. Mercedes Colby suggested that Don and the captain had been overheard talking about it on their way to the cabin; but that point was quickly settled. Neither man had mentioned it before reaching Riggs’ cabin.
Red’s answer was that the thief had happened to see Don through the open door, as he sat at the captain’s table. This sounded reasonable, until Michael Splendor told them he had tried looking through the door. From outside the cabin, he stated, neither table nor record file could be seen.
“The conclusion is, me friends,” he said with a troubled frown, “that the man who struck down Commander Winslow knew in advance what he was going to do, and why. He had time to plan the job, and wait for his chance to catch his victim alone. He knew the very moment we decided to search those records for a clue!”