But I wouldn’t have that either. “You stop just where you are,” I said. “I’m like your leader here—in no mood for fooling.”
At this moment Burroughs fired the blank cartridge from the Stella, and some one called excitedly for Captain Gompez.
Taken aback by the unexpected development, all four started and I took advantage of the moment when their eyes were off me to grab hold of the captain and drag him into the cabin and then slammed the door to and shot home one of the bolts.
“Now we can talk this——”
Before I could finish the sentence he flung himself upon me with an oath in a desperate effort to grab my weapon, while he shouted to the others to break in the door.
Like a fool I had allowed myself to be taken by surprise, and in a second he had me pinned against the wall and at a terrible disadvantage.
I could not use my weapon, and my life depended on my preventing him from getting it.
CHAPTER XXIV
A TIGHT CORNER
CAPTAIN GOMPEZ was about my own height but very strong, as agile as a cat, and mad with rage. Under equal conditions I should have had no chance in such a struggle with him. Fortunately for me, however, the conditions were not equal.
He had been up all night, hard at work in laborious and unusual toil. He was responsible for the management of the Rampallo and had had to teach his crew of amateurs their work, and he was also the leader in this critical part of the abduction plot. The combined strain of all this had told on him and made tremendous demands upon his strength and endurance.