I looked at the three wonderingly. A faint light was beginning to break on my mind. But no, the thing was impossible!
“Are you able to walk now?” said Burnett. “Come, Schwartz, you take one arm and I’ll take another. Between us we’ll give Mr. Constitutionalist a lesson. Stanley, my boy, in all your days you never saw a sight such as I am going to show you now.”
“But it is nothing to what we shall see, comrade, when the captain gives the word,” added Schwartz.
“Thank you,” I replied, “I will lean on you, Burnett. I can do without Herr Schwartz’s assistance.”
We moved across the room.
“Hist!” whispered Burnett, “don’t be nasty to the German. He’s the captain’s right hand. It was he, too, who knocked over your man just now and so saved you from trouble. Take my advice and be discreet.”
I nodded.
“But who——”
“Wait a moment and look around you.”
We had crossed the doorway and were standing in a sort of open bulwarked passage which evidently ran on for some length on either side. I stepped to the bulwarks.