The Strange White Woman of Majuro | Page 4

from the land.'
'I wonder what the true story of that woman's death was, ' said Packenham thoughtfully, as he looked towards the place where she was buried.
'Heaven only knows, ' answered the old trader. 'Whether it was a mutiny, and her husband was murdered, or whether the officer who came ashore with her was the captain himself and her husband as well, I cannot tell. My own idea is that there was a mutiny, and that she had been shot, perhaps accidentally, in the struggle, and that knowing that she might possibly recover, the mutineers had decided to send her ashore, rather than have to keep her a prisoner on board, and then perhaps kill her to prevent the discovery of their crime. Anyway, I have since learnt that there never was a ship named the Inca Prince. I've told the story to every shipmaster I've met since that night, and it was written about a good deal in the English and American newspapers. Then the affair was forgotten and, like many another such thing, the secret may never come out.'
Presently, following the old man, Denison and Packenham went with him in the bright moonlight, and looking over the low white wall of the little cemetery saw the unknown woman's grave. A faint breath of air swayed the pendulous leaves of the surrounding coco palms, which for a moment rustled softly together, and then drooped into the silence of the night. Mac OS X 2 RTEXTR*ch

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