"This isn't a prank. Keep quiet now."
The old sailor was evidently not aware that visitors were in the cabin, for they had made little noise in descending the companion stairs, and what little they had caused was drowned by the distant noise of carpenters' hammers.
As Alice advanced, the others remaining back in the semi-darkness, they all heard Jack Jepson break into a sort of monologue. He was talking to himself, in fashion something like this.
"It ought to be hereabouts, if it's anywhere, and I'm sure it is. I can't be mistaken. They have cut her down, and made a lot of changes, but they can't fool me. I was suspicious when I first came aboard, and I'm more so every minute. I'm going to find out for sure, while I have the chance. Let me think now."
He leaned up against a bulkhead, while Alice glanced back at her friends in some surprise. What meant the words they had overheard? The old sailor seemed strangely excited, and he was passing his hand over the paneling of the cabin as though in search of something long forgotten, or dimly remembered.
A moment later another step was heard in the apartment, and Captain Brisco entered. He started at the sight of Jepson, though the commander had not yet seen the four young people.
"What are you doing here?" he asked in a hoarse voice. The old salt started back as though caught in some guilty act.