With all his failing strength Bob flung himself on the Chinaman. Before Ah Sin could dodge out of the way Bob’s arms went round him and his slouch hat was jerked off.
With the hat came the long queue, leaving Ah Sin’s closely cropped head in plain sight.
“T—Tolo!” gurgled Glennie, a wild, incredulous look crossing his face.
He made a superhuman effort to get off the locker, but the last particle of strength left him in a flash, and he rolled backward.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
RUBBING ELBOWS WITH DEATH.
Bob had neither the time nor the strength to manifest any surprise over the startling revelation made by Glennie. Not only that, but his brain was in such a condition it was well-nigh incapable of surprise.
In that critical moment when he felt a terrifying helplessness surely but steadily creeping over him, he centered every effort on the attempt to make Ah Sin a prisoner.
Swiftly as a lightning flash, the idea struck through Bob’s brain that the Chinaman had all to do with the baffling situation aboard the Grampus. If Bob could drag him down and secure him he felt that, at a later moment, the treacherous Celestial might be dealt with as his evil deeds justified.
But the work he had mapped out for himself exceeded his powers. There was none to come to his aid. Below, in the tank room and motor room, was a silence undisturbed by human voice or movement, and there, in the periscope chamber, the only noise to be heard was the deep breathing of Bob’s unconscious friends and the rattling sounds of the scuffle going forward between the young motorist and Ah Sin.