"But whose orders are absolute?"
"Yours, Mr. Jack, sir."
"Then take this man below and keep him there while you run your rail alongside the Orchid. Nobody follows me until I call, or shoot. Be lively, Captain!"
He looked his horror, but stiffly saluted, saying "Come" to Tommy who had turned white with anger and murderously glared at me.
"Do you mean this dirty trick?" he asked, and I did not meet his eyes when admitting it.
In a few minutes he and Gates were safely in the cabin—Gates having dived nimbly out of our canvas fort; while Tommy, oozing rage, had walked erect, shaking his fist at the Orchid and calling me pretty much every kind of a lizard that crawls the earth.
Perhaps the mad that this aroused was good for me. I had charged into an enemy's face once or twice under a certain amount of unpleasant fire and most uncomfortable sensations. A fellow's savoir faire is far from being faultless on such occasions, but if he's mad—damn mad—he gets along rather well, and Tommy's insulting words turned the trick for me.
We had luffed a bit to let the Orchid draw out ahead, and now all I seemed to see was her slowly nearing rail; twenty feet away, fifteen, ten. My rifle had been laid aside, and I felt to see that my automatic was snugly nested in its holster. Five feet, four, three—we were about to touch! With a bound I cleared my shelter just as the rails were within spanning distance, and vaulted over.