A little group of ship’s officers stood beside Mercedes and Michael Splendor near the davits, just as Don approached. All of them caught the young commander’s quiet words.
“Send your boat around under the stern, Captain Riggs,” Don Winslow murmured. “Our man is there, clinging to the rudder post. If we go softly, we can all get back to the taffrail in time to see the fun!”
For an instant Riggs stared in unbelief, then turned to snap an order at the men below. As the oars resumed their steady stroke alongside, Don led his friends aft on tiptoe. He knew the questions they wanted to ask; but there was no time now for talk.
A few feet from the taffrail, Don signaled the two ship’s officers to stand by. He himself stooped with one hand on the line of the taffrail log.
The wait was not long. As the lifeboat started to round the stern, the stout line under Don’s fingers jerked taut. By its motion he knew that his man was climbing, hand over hand.
Only a trained athlete could have performed such a feat, for the line was barely thick enough to hold a man’s weight. The climber’s hands must have been cut raw after the first half dozen grips, but he came doggedly on. At the last moment before his head appeared, Don drew back in a wrestler’s crouch.
A lunge, a harsh oath, a brief, desperate struggle, and it was over. The unknown, who had attacked Red Pennington and then plunged into the sea, now stood on deck, panting in the grip of three strong men.
“So what?” he demanded insolently. “Now ya got me, wot ya gonna do with me? I ain’t done nothin’ wrong. A guy up an’ slugs me in the dark, an’ I fall overboard, an’ now ya grab me. So what!”
Don’s flashlight, turned on the man’s face showed a pair of small, ratty eyes set in animallike features. The fellow was desperate, and trying to cover it up with a line of bluff.
“Looks as if we’d caught our murderer, all right!” gritted Captain Riggs, after a shrewd glance. “This seaman is one of the replacements we took on in Guantanamo. Shall I throw him in the brig now, Commander, or do you wish to question him first?”