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Show tBuBH Awes Williams TM iifcT 1 u. Servicer- 1 r1" " He pushed her aside, and ,he was Jrown throe or four step, bact-ward bact-ward against the wall and Mil He thought: Why. I must be ,.tron. really strong, to do that! To,, bad' Poor Mary! He went through the after 'tween decks. He moved briskly, th. revolver re-volver in his right hand, his left arm hanging. He remembered to cock the revolver before he started to climb to the deck. He could not help himself with his left hand be-cause be-cause it would not do what he wanted want-ed it to do; and he had to hold the revolver ready in his other hand-so hand-so he went up the companionway very slowly, pushing himself with his feet, his body leaning forward against the treads. The housing looked aft. When his head rose above the deck level, he faced the mizzenmast. He crawled out of the companion on his hands and knees; and the revolver in his right hand thumped on the deck. Peter heard that sound and turned and saw him. Peter was on the starboard side of the cabin companion, by the door of the potato room where Tommy Hanline slept. He had a boat spade poised ready to slice at anyone whose head appeared in the companion. compan-ion. George saw him. George did not see Hurd. Hurd was on the port side, beyond the door of the galley, where old Willie Leeper, as though blind to all that went on aboard here, persistently banged and clattered at his work. Hurd had a boat spade too. But George did not see him. He saw Peter, and Peter saw George The sounds over his head kept George's attention fixed on the com-panion. com-panion. No movement In the main cabin warned him; but It was from that quarter that the attack came. Rannels, Gee, Hurd, and Peter were united by the greedy hope of reward. Peter had won them by promises, playing on each according accord-ing to his appetite. For weapons, . they had the edged tools of the whale fishery; harpoons, lances, spades. It was only necessary to find a chance to use them. With this in mind, Peter planned to draw George's eye in one direction, to attack from another. He set Rannels Ran-nels by the cabin companion with a cutting-in spade, the keen chisel blade six inches across, the handle long enough so that Rannels from the deck could reach the cabin floor. He posted Hurd on top of the after house where from high overhead he could see down through the glass of the skylight and dart a harpoon at any mark that offered. He directed Gee to take an axe down into the main cabin and strike the door into the common room a smashing blow that would make George turn that way. When he thus turned, Rannels, Ran-nels, at the companion, or Hurd, darting the great harpoon, would kill him from above. When the others were in position the Negro went below. Peter himself him-self would take no active part in the affray. Gee was barefooted, and he moved silently. He was accustomed to use an axe left-handed. The door he had to attack swung into the after cabin, the hinges on the port side. Gee stood on that side when he CHAPTER XX 20 .in danger, and the men .hem would be m dan-!Jf?S dan-!Jf?S protect these oth-imself, oth-imself, Richard de- stout club, f eet long, two inches shod with iron; and ;e cket knife. He whit. d of the club into a flat. d blade, not too sharp, enough to break easily. , began to dig steps up the '. pit. For the first few 'J, sloped outward. That "but above that, they be-.pendicular. be-.pendicular. He began to , sort of spiral gallery (.e Sides of the pit; a shelf b for him to lie on, on b while he reached up ' "aim and loosened the soft . end of his club, and it out with his right Inj it over the side of the 0 to the bottom of the pit. 'A of his digging through Kd, half-burned peat 'jm. He descended and ater from the pool, and i, handkerchief and tied it a mouth and nose. While 1 itill lome light, he had e to climb ten feet above of the pit; but then the siind he worked in darkle dark-le time later, the shelf on , lay broke off under his ad he fell, rolling down tater again. He guessed :id reached a point where of the pit began to slope so that there was nothing i the gallery he excavated and leaped toward him. George fell on his face and rolled on his side and lifted the revolver and shot. Peter ducked and dodged; and suddenly he screamed like a woman. wom-an. Panic fear broke him down. He turned to run aft toward the companion, com-panion, squalling as he ran. George thumbed back the hammer ham-mer of the revolver and shot again. Peter seemed to trip and fall, and he no longer screamed. George, lying ly-ing on his side, his cheek against the deck, the revolver flat on the deck at his arm's length, pulled the hammer and shot again and again, slowly, laboriously aiming through eyes half closed. After a space, the hammer clicked on an empty cylinder. He could do nothing more. He rolled on his back and looked up; and then his eyes opened wide in clear recognition of what was about to happen to him. Hurd, the little Cockney, stood over him in silhouette against the sky and the web of rigging. Hurd was lifting lift-ing his boat spade to strike. He seemed to stand there motionless; and time had stopped, and instants were eternal. CHAPTER XXI swung me axe. He delivered that blow with a nervous violence which proved his own destruction. The axe hit the panels just beside the bolt, and the flimsy screws flew out and the door flew open so easily that Gee by his own weight was pulled forward, the axe and his swinging arms dragging drag-ging him off balance, into the doorway. door-way. George, when the Negro struck, was standing at the foot of the companionway, com-panionway, looking up, the bomb gun in his hands, the door into the main cabin ten feet away and behind be-hind him. At the crash of the axe blow, he whirled and saw the Negro in the doorway. Gee bawled in dismay, dis-may, trying to leap clear, as George lifted the bomb gun and fired. At the sound of the axe, Rannels i stepped to the top of the companion-way companion-way above George. At the foot of the companionway he saw George swing to face Gee, and as George lifted the bomb gun, Rannels stabbed downward with the long spade. He aimed at the nape of George's neck. If the blow had struck fairly, it would have decapitated the man below; be-low; but the recoil of the gun knocked George off balance backward. back-ward. He was already falling when .id have to tunnel upward ie solid peat and reach :e somewhere to one side to do so. Almost at once :e of the peat became Till now he had worked in surned, the life baked out ie heat of those old fires; it began to have substance !.a held together by grass i centuries ago. His task :::reasingly laborious. Us-: Us-: sel-shaped end of his club .ow spade, he drove it at around blocks of peat, vithhis right hand clawed its free rawed like a mole. The dug was no larger than If he could wedge his :gh it, and have room to A he was content. There some moisture in the peat ::ch he tunneled, and not nevertheless thirst har- en he went down to drink, ;a! there was light in the (Bp of the pit. The short aight was ending. Dawn 'tile after that, he realized ?ter fibre of the chunks he that he had reached live J. The realization, even ; proved he was near the 'the ground and promised ffld to his labors, did not a. He worked slow and red without knowing it, "th weariness. He thrust :ed club upward with a shoulders and back, his -& hard. one of these thrusts sent -ough into open air. There to mat of grass roots to hut Ave minutes later lagged himself like a crip- through the opening he .and lay prune. :liran, following the bro- Irough the tall grass, who found him there. to Venturer, George and Pt their vigil; George by nth the revolver and the feady, Mary at the cabin faugh which she could see ' on shore. After a long :0rge h(-'ard a voice on ;JMen cry; so he knew u wciiu. nv was aiiuuu.y iuiiu& Rannels struck, so the harpooncr missed his aim. The spade that would have caught George in the neck, instead slid over his shoulder and down his left arm. It bit into his forearm just below the elbow. It sliced the flesh like a razor, grated grat-ed on the bone. George, thrown backward by the recoil, fell on his left side. The smoke of powder from tha gun's thunderous discharge had instantly filled the cabin; but through this smoke as he lay on his side he saw Rannels at the head of the companionway compan-ionway recovering the spade to strike again. He rolled on his back, dodging that blow; and he dragged the revolver, already cocked, out of his belt and fired it upward blindly. blind-ly. The heavy slug struck Rannels in the breast bone. He slid feet first down the companionway and lay in a huddle on the cabin floor. The thinning smoke made George cough. He heard a faint sound that seemed to be far away, and realized it was a voice, and saw Mary on her knees here beside him. Mary was trying- to hold him. He pushed her away. He had not meant to do this violently; but under his Behind Hurd George could see him under Kurd's upraised arms-Willie arms-Willie Leeper was holding upraised a heavy cleaver. Before Hurd's spade stopped going up for the downward down-ward blow at George, the cleaver, already lifted, began to descend. It came slowly against Hurd's neck, on the side under the ear, at an angle inward. The broad keen blade went far in and in. The spade in Hurd's hands dropped to the deck. The blade of it brushed against George's side, and stuck in the planking; and the spade stood erect for a moment, and then fell over sidewise as the blade, for lack of any deep hold, broke out of the planking. The handle han-dle fell across George's body. Hurd fell the other way, making choking sounds. Willie Leeper looked down at him. Willie said in a piping, pip-ing, thin voice to Hurd dying on the deck: "There, drat ye!" George laughed. That was funny. He had never heard Willie speak before be-fore Willie had a thin, squeaking voice that was completely absurd-George absurd-George was much amused. Then he forgot Willie, for here was Mary. George rolled his head sidewise to look at Peter lying on the deck aft; but Peter had not moved, so everything was all right. He told her so. He said carefully: "Everything's all right, Mary." He tried to nod, to reassure her. "It's all right, Mary." he repeated. She said fiercely: "Hush! Oh. my brave dear!" "It's all right," he insisted, and smiled Something was running out of him. His life. It was running out through his arm, fast; but he must be sure Mary understood, so that she would be happy, afterward. He tried to tell her that he knew she loved Richard, that he knew she and Richard were fine, that it was all r-ght, that she was not to feel badly about him, or about anything. But so much of him had already run out that there was not enough of him left to say what he wished to sar and while he lay happy in Mary's arms, the rest ran out in a dwindling little stream. On a day almost four months later lat-er under all sail, the Venturer moved serenely up ;n a white-capped "a Richard had for the moment .one below. Mat Forbes was aft. Tommy Hanline proudly taking a lurn at the wheel. Corkran and y stood together by the starboard star-board rail amidships; and the par-S par-S nibbled at Corkran's ear. and SUered wheedling. Two or three Ss away, a whaler, bark-ngged, .aS outward bound. (TO BE COMlMhO) i "e Mary spoke. jed with glowing eyes; she ' They've found him! Two of them are help-rge, help-rge, Richard is alive!" "dded. "Then they'll be minded her. He knew .' Since the men had ard. Peter must hold the and escape in her, or be " hold her against the bats, he must have Lt'i"01 stup t0 consider Sid !!? in hand' He "od the cabin against any 2'd' But he might sudden imminence of tion, he real-, real-, " he faded, he could itou WcaP"les. al ShjrpI' "Tak ,y ndge boxes, the pow- J Break the window. 811 overboard." fthr0w outthe bQxes Effl sr umc'one 0n deck J the water and ann ,and Saw what 6' and shouted a warn- n there, you'" Shoul back ' the fir . ' Look,,. nnm wh0 shws 10 Cud? thr0Ufih the anT t!e nothing ex-and ex-and segment of the kepl her ,, u Pajse, til it was thrust she staggered backward till she collided with the corner of the desk. He shook his head regretfully. Too bad to hurt her; but he had business in hand. He lonkeu for Gee, and saw him with a calm surprise. George had not heard the bomb explode; but it had exploceo. There was no doubt of that tt-e was in the main cabin, on the floor by the table. Something had flung him backward; but what lay there had been Gee. It must have been. The skin was black. Mary was here again, ripping at .his coat, trying to tear away the sleeve, trying to tend the terrible wound in his arm. Weakness swept over George in a slow, sick wave, yet his mind was clear enough. Rannels Ran-nels was dead, and Gee too; but in a minute now he, George McAus-land, McAus-land, would collapse from loss or blood, and lie helpless here, and then Peter could come down and gei thThgaThad to be stopped. He must kill Peter while he could. George decided to go through the main cabin into the steerage and thus reach the deck. Mary was trying try-ing to hold him. but he put her aside. Whatever she was saym, did not matter. It could not matter. He must reach the deck somehow, and manage Peter Corr. Mary hindered hin-dered him. He said to her in an elaborate whisper, loudly, so that she would be sure to understand. Stay here. Talk. Make them think I'm here" I |