Part 26 (2/2)

The second door I ordered locked. Putting my head out of one of the windows I counted the enemy as they stood grouped near the stairway from the main deck. Bothwell was in the lead, followed by Caine. At their heels trooped both engineers, the three firemen, the cook, Johnson, Mack, Gallagher, Dennis, Smith, and Neidlinger. It was not easy to count them, because they s.h.i.+fted to and fro, but I was almost sure they were fourteen. The boatswain carried in his hand a towel, which he was waving.

”Crew to have a conference with you, Cap'n Blythe,” he called out.

”I hold no conference with armed mutineers,” Blythe called back sternly.

He was standing in the wheelhouse, rifle in hand. Beside him was the curly head of Tom Yeager.

”This here s.h.i.+p's company offers to do the square thing, share and share alike, cap'n,” boomed out the boatswain. ”We wants a bit of that there treasure, and by Moses! we're going to have it. But we don't want no bloodshed, cap'n.”

”Then get back to duty in a hurry, my man!”

George Fleming spoke up.

”Give us that map and we'll put your party ash.o.r.e safe, sir.”

”I'll see you hung up to dry at my yardarm first! If you want the s.h.i.+p come and take it, you scurvy scoundrel!”

It looked like long odds--fourteen to two. I began to wonder if Bothwell had forgotten us, and I ordered Alderson to unlock the door for a sortie if one should be necessary.

Even while I was speaking the rush came. They divided like running water when it reaches a big rock in midstream. Some of them poured toward us, the rest made for the bridge. I heard the crack of Sam's rifle, the rattle of small arms, and then the battle was upon us.

CHAPTER XIV

THE BATTLE

I fired through the window and brought down one fellow while they were still coming in a huddle toward us. Before I could fire again they were in the saloon and at close quarters with us.

To me it seemed that a hundred men were struggling in that narrow, smoke-filled s.p.a.ce. A grimy, black-faced stoker leaped at me and I fired.

I remember beating him over the head with my revolver and that we went down together in a clinch.

As I was falling it came over me that the attack was only a feint to keep us busy. The main body of the mutineers was storming the wheelhouse.

When I clambered to my feet I found that our attackers had been routed.

Billie Blue's dirk had put a temporary quietus on my stoker, and the rest had fled as quickly as they had come.

”This way!” I shouted, and was out of the door in a jiffy.

A swarm of men were racing up the steps that led to the bridge and the pilot house. One lay with arms outstretched, face down on the deck.

Another was sliding down the rail of the steps, his face writhing with pain.

Our friends were hard pressed. Blythe was keeping the door against a mob, while Yeager was firing through the window. Twice I saw the captain's cutlas flash. Then I lost sight of him and I knew that Bothwell had forced the entrance.

At the same instant the Arizonian disappeared from the opening which he had been using as a porthole. I knew that Sam was down and that his friend had gone to his a.s.sistance. My flank attack must have come as a surprise. The mutineers turned, finding themselves between two fires. We crowded in on them, and for a time the jam was so thick that none of us could do much damage.

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