Why Thomas Bram Was Found Guilty, During this time, Purdok, on the lookout on the topgallant forecastle, heard nothing, and noticed nothing peculiar in the vessel's sailing. Soon the first mate called out to Frank Loheac, " four bells," and Loheac came aft and went by the port side to the after deck and relieved Charley Brown at the wheel. Charley Brown said nothing of what he had seen, but walked forward to the forecastle where he felt chilly and pulled on a thick shirt and some thick trousers over the clothes which he had on. Then he lit his pipe and went out to be with Purdok, who was on the lookout. Meanwhile, Loheac, at the wheel, heard what he called a " gurgling noise " from the chart-room. Then he saw the first mate walk down the steps of the deckload and disappear in the forward companion way. Immediately, however, up came the first mate, the same way, running for the deck. He had hardly reached the deck when Loheac heard the passenger call, " Mr. Bram! Come down!" The passenger was a heavy sleeper, but had been half wakened by the woman's shriek. Slowly coming to his senses he heard also a horrible stertorous breathing in the chart-room where the captain was. Both of these shocks gradually brought him to himself, and fearing some danger he took from under his pillow a new revolver which he had never used, opened a drawer under his mattress, broke open a package of cart ridges and loaded the revolver. He called out, " Captain Nash! " No answer came. Then he got out of bed, thrust his feet into slippers, and having on a suit. of pa jamas for night - clothes, unlocked the door into the chart-room and rushed out. There before him lay the captain on the floor, gasping. The cot was upset. The dim light of the lantern in the main cabin shone into the chart-room, but as the pas senger went in he was between the light and the captain's head. The passenger
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hastened to the captain's side. Going the length of his body, the passenger put a hand on the captain's shoulder which was wet with the death sweat. At once the passenger ran out of the chart-room into the main cabin to Mrs. Nash's door to call her to her husband. But he found the door open, and looking in he saw but a part of the bed, the rest of it being in the dark behind the door, and did not see Mrs. Nash. On the bed he saw dark patches of what he supposed to be blood, but which was afterwards found to be chopped hair, and, turning in terror again into the main cabin, he ran across it to the forward companionway. The young man then displayed that presence of mind and ability to act with decision in spite of fear which soldiers used to call " two o'clock in the morning courage." He avoided the after companionway because it was less open and he might be more easily struck on the head while going up its steps, and he chose the forward companion way because it was quite open with the sliding cover shoved back. Point ing his revolver before him, he approached the deck and looked for what he might see. There, on deck, about twenty feet away from him, he saw through the darkness the first mate, and called out the words which Loheac heard at the wheel, " Mr. Bram! Come down! " adding, " The captain is killed." The first mate, seeing the revolver pointed at him, took up a board and held it before him and replied, " No! No! No! " The passenger asked the first mate to come be low to the passenger's cabin until he could put on some clothes. So they went down the forward companion way together, pas sing the second mate's room on the left without either of them trying to find the second mate, although the first mate went into his own room directly opposite and got a revolver. The second mate's room was dark, since its door did not face the lamp. Then they walked through the main cabin, taking the lamp with them and turning it up,
