“I was frightened, gentlemen. I am a man of peace. But the burly engineer overawed me, and drove me forth to do his bidding. The cook found a number of revolvers and appropriated them, hiding them in his pans. But evidently, he overlooked one revolver or else the man possessing it carried it with him, for you were shot at several times by one of the Chinese.”
“I’ll say we were,” declared Frank, slangily.
“Then,” continued the doctor, “when I returned to the engine room, the Chinese all left. Perhaps they
suspected some treachery toward them was going on. At any rate, they scampered for the forecastle, and Engineer MacFinney couldn’t stop them with his curses and blows.
“A moment or two later, Matt Murphy came into the engine room. Mr. MacFinney was working at his gauges. Murphy beckoned me, and I followed to the deck. He asked me to help him lower a boat and tie it to the stern. He said the Chinese were plotting an attack even then, and that if I wanted to save my life I must carry out his orders. I obeyed.
“As we worked, I asked whether he was coming, too? ‘No,’ said he, ‘ye’ll be picked up by Uncle Sam’s men. Them byes are calling a speedy patrol boat by radio right now. I want to get ’em off an’ away quick, so we can escape in the trawler. I don’t want to be put in prison the rest o’ my life.’
“‘But this trawler is slow,’ I protested. ‘How can you hope to escape from a fast patrol boat?’
“‘Fog,’ said he. ‘I can smell it comin’. After last night’s storm, it’s bound to come up. If it only comes in time we can hide in it, an’ that’s our chance.’”
“Fog?” cried Frank, alarmed.
So interested had all been in Doctor Marley’s narrative