“But,” he thought to himself, “there must somewhere be a port for this vessel. She must have some place somewhere, to lay by and rest, and to permit her crew to rest. I hardly suppose that she goes to the bottom of the Sound and rests there, and it is certain that she could not visit a frequented port without attracting attention which would be fatal. Therefore, she must go somewhere. She must have a port; and, in all likelihood, she will go directly to that port when she leaves the vicinity of this harbor.
“Now, if she does go to such a place, it is more than likely that the pirate and his wife—or whatever she is to him—will go ashore, and that is, the opportunity I want. Just give me half an hour of undisturbed opportunity aboard this vessel, and I will read every secret its owner ever had. Ah!”
All these thoughts passed through his brain while he was watching the woman’s approach, and the concluding exclamation he uttered—or thought, for he made no sound—was caused by her hastening directly to the door behind which he was concealed.
Just outside of it she came to an abrupt halt, and the detective drew back and flattened himself as closely as possible against the bulkhead, in order that if she did decide to enter the stateroom where he was concealed, he might remain undiscovered for as long a time as possible.
But whatever the thoughts were which troubled her, and gave rise to the hesitation under which she seemed to be struggling, they were of short duration; for, although she stretched out her hand until it touched the door, she withdrew it again, and then, after sighing deeply, turned and retraced her steps to the cabin.
The detective opened his door again, and stepped out far enough into the passageway to discover that the woman had resumed the reading of a book, which had been left lying open on the table, and he decided that in all probability she would not leave her chair again for some time to come; at least, not until the work of the pirates in looting the Aurora was finished and the chief returned to the cabin and to her. Satisfied on that point, and perceiving that the woman’s back was toward him, he went inside the cabin in which he had taken refuge, and without hesitation turned on the electric light.
He believed this to be as good a time as any in which to search the cabin in which he found himself, and he had already perceived that, although it was one which did not appear to be permanently occupied, it nevertheless, bore evidences of individual uses.
He knew, also, that he ran no apparent danger in turning on the light for a few moments, since the woman’s back was toward him, and he was positive that the door beyond her, which communicated with the waist of the vessel, could not be opened without his hearing it.
The stateroom was in every way as commodious as possible in the narrow space allowed, and everything within it had been arranged by a master hand, with a view to comfort and convenience.
The berth itself was a bed; in the bulkhead at one end had been built a rosewood dresser, and at the other end a writing-desk. There was a folding Morris chair, also fashioned so that it could be made to disappear in the bulkhead, under the electric light; there was a narrow and shallow wardrobe close beside the dresser, and a steamer trunk showed its front under the edge of the narrow bed.