“Yes,” replied Jack, “and I’m going to keep it there until I’m paid to take it out. I want two pounds four and I’m going to get it before I leave this ship.”
Jack climbed up on a small table, and wrapping his hand in his handkerchief, crashed his fist through the skylight. The skylight had a fixed top, and, instead of the usual guard bars, had loose wooden shutters for use in bad weather. Jack picked away the remainder of the glass. Placing a small box on top of the table, he climbed upon it and peered out.
He could just catch a glimpse of the man at the wheel. The fellow was not taking his duties very seriously, for he was sitting on the grating filling his pipe and letting the ship steer itself. Jack considered, looked out again, then descended from the table with a distinctly purposeful air.
“I’m looking for a piece of rubber plaster,” he told Frank and Hetherington.
He opened the medicine chest, and cut off several strips. Then he picked up a piece of rope that hung upon a peg on the cabin wall.
“I want to try a little experiment,” he told the others. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
He cut off a couple of lengths of rope, and having pocketed one, and having made a small fixed loop in the end of the other, climbed up on the box again and looked out on deck.
All was quiet without. Jack heard the helmsman yawn sleepily; he had left the wheel with a rope hitched around one of the spokes, and was now leaning over the rail looking at the water.
Grasping the frame of the skylight, Jack gave a light spring and came stealthily through the opening. Then, creeping along the deck in the shelter of the small boat and the companion hood, he stole toward the sailor.
As the man threw back his head and yawned, Jack slipped his left hand around, holding the strip of plaster spread out on it, and clapped the plaster over the man’s mouth, and instantly pinioned his hands by clasping him tightly round the chest.