Captain Riggs ran to the door and I followed him, with my hand on my pistol, Meeker crowding against my shoulders. In the dim light oozing into the passage we made out an indistinct figure.
"What in Sally Ann's name is this?" shouted Riggs, darting out and seizing the object, which he pulled toward the light.
It was the body of Mr. Trego, stabbed to the heart, the sailor's sheath-knife which had killed him still in his fatal wound.
"What the blue blazes does this mean?" demanded Captain Riggs, turning to us as if we could explain the tragedy. "What in the name of Sally Ann has happened here? Tell me that?"
"Can that be our friend, Mr. Trego, who was with us but a minute ago?" asked Meeker, aghast as he gazed at the waxen features of the dead man.
"It's Mr. Trego right enough," shouted Riggs. "It's Trego and no doubt of that! Well, I'm blowed!"
"Who could have done such an awful thing?" whispered Meeker, staring at me with wide-open eyes. "Who could have done this?"
"Don't ask me!" Captain Riggs bawled at him. "Don't ask me!"
"He's quite dead," said Meeker, leaning forward again. "In the midst of life we are in death."
He held his hands over the dead man and said a prayer.