Mark sort of chuckled. “I’m goin’ upstairs where it’s safe,” says he.
That was a joke, all right. Mark Tidd wasn’t the sort of fellow to hunt a hole when his chums were running risks, so I knew he had some sort of a scheme whizzing in his head. It stiffened my spine in a second. When it comes to strategy I take off my hat to Mark.
We kept our eyes on the Japanese, who were getting into the old scow. They weren’t used to boats and had a pretty tough time pushing off and getting under way. But when they got started they came like they meant business.
The Man Who Will Come was standing up in the stern. Two Japs were rowing, and two sat all ready to attack as soon as they landed. They had to row about two hundred feet.
Binney and I held our fire till they were a hundred feet off, then we let fly. We didn’t hit any fingers at that distance, but we knocked some dust out of a couple of pairs of pants. We could see the Japanese jump and squirm, for those pebbles hit plenty hard and stung enough to make anybody wish he had on a suit of armor.
We kept up a steady fire, and Plunk joined in while they were too far away to reach with his pole. None of us bothered with The Man Who Will Come. It was the machinery we wanted to damage, and the two rowers were the engine. I was sort of sorry for those fellows, because they caught it and caught it good. At last Binney plunked one fellow right on the knuckles. He got half out of his seat, let out a howl, and dropped his oar overboard. That made the boat swing around sideways. The Man Who Will Come didn’t lose his jaunty air for a minute. He just spoke low to the man, who reached out quick and got his oar.
They pulled around straight and came on again. Binney and I kept on peppering them good. I had the luck to smack my man on the hand, but he didn’t drop his oar. He missed a stroke, though.
The Man Who Will Come fixed his round glass in one eye and beamed at us as jovial as could be.
“Ho, leetle boys, make a stopping. Do not throwing stones. My men will get to become angry if you hurt them some more.”
“I’ll hurt you,” says I, and gave him one for luck.