“Captain,” said I, “I’ll tell you what’s in my head! That woman below who styled herself John Burgess murdered Sheringham.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because I believe that she’s his wife.”
“Ha!” said Captain Smallport.
I gave several reasons for this notion; what I observed in the disguised woman’s behaviour when hidden behind the mainmast; then her being a foreigner, in all probability a South American, as Leonora Dunbar was, and so on.
He said, “What about the blood on Miss Dunbar’s hand and night-dress?”
“She told us she had felt over the body.”
“Yes, yes!” he cried, “doctor, you see things more clearly than I do.”
When I had conversed for some time with Captain Smallport, I walked to Miss Dunbar’s cabin, knocked, and entered. I found her on this occasion standing with her back to the door, apparently gazing at the sea through the portholes; she did not turn her head. I stood beside her to see her face and said—
“I have made a discovery; Mrs. Sheringham is on board this ship.”