CHAPTER V.
BOARDED.
While von Eckenhardt was recovering consciousness and the two young officers were pulling themselves together after their trying ordeal, Captain Ramshaw, who had been informed of the successful issue of the affair, proceeded to the cabin taken by the German under the name of Duncan McDonald.
It was a single berth cabin, furnished in the luxuriant style that the Red Band Line provided for their first-class passengers.
The "old man" first directed his attention to an unlocked portmanteau. It was filled with clothes. Methodically the chief steward, under Captain Ramshaw's supervision, went through the pockets. He found nothing incriminating. There was some correspondence in English of a commonplace order, which gave no rise to suspicion.
A second portmanteau was doubly locked. The steward cut the Gordian knot by ripping the cowhide with his pocket-knife. Inside the case were more clothes, but between the folds was a metal case half filled with phosphor-bronze filings. There were also a revolver and two hundred rounds of ammunition, the presence of which in a passenger's possession was in itself a breach of the Company's regulations.
"Now, that cabin trunk, Saunders," exclaimed Captain Ramshaw, pointing to a large, strongly made box. "You won't open that with your penknife, my man."
"One minute, sir," said the steward.
He left the cabin, returning in a very short space of time with a heavy hammer and a cold chisel.