★ VI ★
When Neill had changed to dry garments they set about finding some way into the ship. All the cabin doors were locked, but alongside the engine-room skylight above the boat deck they found a booby hatch with a door which had no lock. Neill opened it, and cast his light down into the bowels of the ship. A spidery iron stairway descended into the pit, back and forth from landing to landing. Far at the bottom gleamed the cylinder heads of the engine.
“Come on!” he said.
“Not down there!” murmured Janet, hanging back.
It was as forbidding as the entrance to hell and Neill could not blame her. You had the feeling that there was something at the bottom of that blackness waiting for you. However, he laughed it off.
“The whole ship is ours,” he said. “We can go where we like.”
“Th
