"You must have been. With the airship lying at this angle the door must have swung accidentally. We may have left it just ajar, and a tremor of the hull set it in motion."
With that Dacres crawled back to the hatchway. It was a tricky business, for the smooth metal plates afforded a very insecure foothold.
"Here's the book, sir," he said. "It does contain the names of the crew—thirty-nine, by Jove! And Durango's tally is not amongst them. That's forty, at least, for there may have been others on board whose names are not on the list."
"H'm! Well, we'll throw overboard the papers we found in Durango's cabin and our men can take them back to the 'Meteor.' After that we'll make a careful examination of the wreckage of the fore-part and see if we can identify any of the victims. Tell Callaghan to stand by as we throw the gear over-board."
As the two officers re-entered Durango's cabin they "brought up all standing," and looked at each other in amazement. They had left the coat hanging on its peg. It now lay on the floor, with the lining of the pockets turned inside out, while the loose ammunition had been thrown about and had rolled into a corner to leeward.
"That rascal has been on board!" exclaimed Whittinghame.
CHAPTER XX.
A HAZARDOUS PROPOSAL.
"YES, we've had a narrow squeak," continued the Captain. "It's easy to reconstruct the case. Durango was either concealed in the woods or else hiding on board. More than likely he was stowed away somewhere on the airship, otherwise Callaghan and the other men ought to have spotted him."
"But they didn't see him leave," objected Dacres.