“Yes, sir. Me an’ Darky John came after him. We helped fasten him in.” “Who else was there?” “The Old Man, an’ Buckley the mate, an’ that queer Dago feller.” “There wasn’t any fight or trouble about who should come first?” “No, sir. The Old Man gave his orders. Petersen, here, he leaves fifth, I think. ‘Good-bye, boys. See you later,’ he says, an’ off he goes. Next I see of him, he lies here dead. What killed him or how, I don’t know, no more than a blind fish.” “Straight enough story,” commented Haynes, “particularly as Hawkins, the coloured man, gives the same version. We’ll try the foreigner later. I want to get to the bottom of this. If murder has been done in mid-air, between the reef where the schooner lay and this cliff, it’s about the strangest case in my experience.” “How are you so sure it’s murder?” demanded Serdholm the life-guard. “Anyone can make out murder if they’re looking for sensation hard enough.” There was an undisguised hostility in his tone as he addressed Haynes which surprised Colton. “Why do you think it wasn’t?” asked Colton quickly. “Did I say I thought it wasn’t?” retorted the guard. “Maybe it was; but I’ve seen a sharpened stake shoved clean through a man in a surf.” “You needn’t be so fresh about it, Serdholm,” put in the other guard. “It’s true, though, what he says, Mr. Haynes,” he added. “And there was plenty of driftwood afloat.” Colton bent over the dead man again. “It’s almost too clean an incision for anything except steel,” he said. “Besides, wood leaves splinters.” “You saw the man come in?” Haynes asked Bruce. “Helped to lift him out. Look!” He held out his hands, showing great stains of blood. “You didn’t see anything that would give a clue?” “No, I didn’t see anything,” returned Bruce after a moment’s consideration; “but some of the men thought they heard a scream, when he was about halfway in. It was just after a lightning flash. They thought a bolt might have gone through him.” “Lightning doesn’t wound that way,” said Colton.
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