The German's face grew dead white. His jaw dropped, his eyes blazed like flames; he gave a roar of baffled fury and strained at his fastenings with gigantic strength, the muscles at his temples standing out like blue cords. I never before or since saw such hideous rage.
"Stop that!" my brother said, whipping out his revolver and pointing it straight at the fellow.
It was of no use, however. Again that gigantic bellow swelled out into the night. Dickson saved the situation. There must be something in these boys' books after all, for I never saw a gag more quickly and deftly inserted.
"And now, tell us exactly what you have learnt, Miss Joyce," Bernard asked.
She did so in a very few sentences, putting up her hair at the same time, standing before the mirror which Schweitzer's pot-shot at me had cracked. Strange creatures girls are!
"Half-past six," said Bernard, looking at his watch. "Now for the Admiral. Get that drawbridge up again."
We did so, and shortly after my brother joined us.
"There will be some signal," he said; "one of us must personate that brute down below. You are the biggest, John, and the broadest."
"There's an oilskin and a sou'wester hanging in the man's bunk, sir," said Dickson.
"Just the thing. Cut along and fetch them."