MURDER ON BOARD

During a lull in the storm which tossed and rocked the sturdy little steamer Dauntless, a shot rang out on A deck.

Professor Fordney threw down the detective story he was somewhat unsuccessfully trying to read and hastened into the companionway. Where it turned at the far corner, he found Steward Mierson bending over the body of a man who had been instantly killed. Just then the heavens opened; lightning flashed and thunder boomed as if in ghoulish mockery.

The dead man’s head bore powder burns. Captain Larson and the criminologist started checking the whereabouts of everyone aboard, beginning with those passengers nearest where the body was discovered.

The first questioned was Nathan Cohen, who said he was just completing a letter in his cabin when he heard the shot.

“May I see it?” Larson asked.

Looking over the captain’s shoulder Fordney saw the small, precise handwriting, on the ship’s stationery. The letter was apparently written to a woman.

The next cabin was occupied by Miss Margaret Millsworth. On being questioned regarding what she was doing at the time, Miss Millsworth became excited and nervous. She stated that she had become so frightened by the storm, that about fifteen minutes before the shot was fired she had gone to the cabin of her fiancé, James Montgomery, directly opposite. The latter corroborated her statement, saying they hadn’t rushed into the passageway because it would have looked compromising were they seen emerging together at that hour. Fordney noticed a dark red stain on Montgomery’s dressing gown.

The whereabouts of the rest of the passengers and crew were satisfactorily checked.

Whom did the captain hold on suspicion? Why? Turn page for solution.