Miss Lee got up and came to the door where I was standing.
“Surely we need not be prisoners any longer!” she said in an undertone. “It is daylight. If I stay here I shall go crazy.”
“The murderer is still on the ship,” I protested. “And just now the deck is—hardly a place for women. Wait until this afternoon, Miss Lee. By that time I shall have arranged for a guard for you. Although God knows, with every man under suspicion, where we will find any to trust.”
“You will arrange a guard!”
“The men have asked me to take charge.”
“But—I don’t understand. The first mate—”
“—is a prisoner of the crew.”
“They accuse him!”
“They have to accuse some one. There’s a sort of hysteria among the men, and they’ve fixed on Singleton. They won’t hurt him, I’ll see to that,—and it makes for order.”
She considered for a moment. I had time then to see the havoc the night had wrought in her. She was pale, with deep hollows around her eyes. Her hands shook and her mouth drooped wearily. But, although her face was lined with grief, it was not the passionate sorrow of a loving girl. She had not loved Vail, I said to myself. She had not loved Vail! My heart beat faster.