"THAT DURN KELLEY"

On 28 September, in the middle of the afternoon, our stalwart heroes thought they were done with cargo manifests.

They split up into pairs and began a thorough search of the holds, looking for more evidence of sabotage. While Catherine and Betsy examined the scientific equipment, Rachel and the ever-jovial Shaftoe plunged into the depths of the #1 hold. Their search was fruitful almost immediately-- the front 10 tanks of oxygen had been significantly lightened.

They reported this fact to Moore immediately, and then everyone met for dinner. Morale was low, though Starkweather's blustering raised the spirits of those at his table.

That night, nervous about the expedition and desirous of catching the saboteurs, Betsy and Rachel kept a watch on the hold doors not visible from the bridge. After most people had retired, Betsy caught sight of Giles and Kelly moving toward the door to the #4 hold. Giles stayed on-deck and smoked while Kelly, carrying a whiskey flask, went below. A great ruckus ensued-- shouting, crew members rushing towards the hold with a gun, Giles running away. Turlow and Starkweather escorted a subdued Kelley to the bridge.

It eventually came out that behind the bin of "oil" that Kelley was tapping from there was found an envelope (containing strychnine) and a bottle of caustic soda. Kelley denied knowledge of the evidence, but was of course not believed. The Captain ordered the bosun stores cleaned out, and Kelley to be taken there. The barrel of "oil" got emptied over the side, to the mournful looks of the crew and expedition members. Starkweather had a "chat" with Giles, who was put under "cabin arrest" for a few days.

All of this was again announced the next morning at breakfast-- loud shouts that the saboteur had been caught were propagated. Only O'Doul, the women, Gunar, and Niles seemed to be fine with the loss of "oil".

Later, a fairly despondent party (who, for some reason, were sure that Kelley was innocent) descended once again into the holds, this time all together, to look for more sabotage. They worked in the #4 hold, which seemed clean, and then moved to the #2, where the dynamite was kept. Catherine checked the dynamite out and declared it fine, but as they were leaving, Betsy noticed a string tied to the rung of the ladder directly below the level they were in.

Following it, Catherine (cautiously) determined that it was in fact a fuse, leading to a few blasting caps wrapped in cloth and wedged between barrels of jet fuel. They noticed also that the blasting caps were the original "wrong" size. Catherine did remark that the it looked like a hasty job-- the fuse was attached to the blasting caps rather inexpertly. This led Rachel to the insight that a crew member had likely fashioned the bomb, since all expedition members had (very early on) been to a class on the use of dynamite.

Betsy, in a moment of silliness, reported the finding to first mate Turlow, who reported it to the captain. A full cabin search was ordered (and proved fruitless). Turlow gave the full list of people who had regular access to the holds-- mate on watch; Whitney, the chief steward; Abraham, the cook; Price, the storekeeper; two mess boys named Coates and Henning.

Under further vigil, Rachel and Shaftoe noticed the cook and mess boys entering the hold most regularly.

The news of further sabotage spread more; in fact, though Turlow had only said 'more sabotage' in the presence of others, rumors quickly flew about that a bomb had been found. When our heroes asked Colt to track down the source of those rumors, the mess crew again came up.

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