"I didn't look. I thought I saw something white moving below me,
and I was watching it."
"This white thing--what did it look like?" "Like a dog, I should
say. It moved about, and then disappeared."
"How?"
"I don't understand."
"Over the rail?"
"Oh--no, sir. It faded away."
"Had you ever heard talk among the men of the Ella being a haunted
ship?"
"Yes--but not until after I'd signed on her!"
"Was there some talk of this 'white thing'?"
"Yes."
"Before the murders?"
"No, sir; not till after. I guess I saw it first."
"What did the men say about it?"
"They thought it scared Mr. Schwartz overboard. The Ella's been
unlucky as to crews. They call her a 'devil ship.'"
"Did you see Mr. Singleton on deck between two and three o'clock?"
"No, sir."
The cross-examination was very short:-"What sort of night was it?"
"Very dark."
"Would the first mate, as officer on watch, be supposed to see that
the emergency case you speak of was in order?"
"Yes, sir."
"Did the officer on watch remain on the forecastle-head?"
"Mr. Schwartz did not; Mr. Singleton did, mostly except when he went
back to strike the bells."
"Could Mr. Singleton have been on deck without you seeing him?"
"Yes, if he did not move around or smoke. I could see his pipe
lighted."
"Did you see his pipe that night?"
"No, sir."
"If you were sick, would you be likely to smoke?"
This question, I believe, was ruled out.
"In case the wheel of the vessel were lashed for a short time, what
would happen?"
"Depends on the weather. She'd be likely to come to or fall off
considerable."
"Would the lookout know it?"
"Yes, sir."
"How?"
"The sails would show it, sir."
That closed the proceedings for the day. The crowd seemed reluctant
to disperse. Turner's lawyers were in troubled consultation with
him. Singleton was markedly more cheerful, and I thought the
prosecution looked perturbed and uneasy. I went back to jail that
night, and dreamed of Elsa--not as I had seen her that day, bending
forward, watching every point of the evidence, but as I had seen her
so often on the yacht, facing into the salt breeze as if she loved
it, her hands in the pockets of her short white jacket, her hair
blowing back from her forehead in damp, close-curling rings.