A shot rang out at him, and the bullet slithered on the steel beside him. Barnes paused to empty his automatics, then went up the ladder on the jump. At the top, he caught hold of the frightened children and rushed them along, shouting as he did so to the two quartermasters.
They, after shooting at the forms down below on the foredeck and in the well, joined him at the boat. Barnes chucked in the three children and cast off the toggle.
"In with you, men, and lower away! I'll slide down the pendant. Where's your pistol, Ellen? Hand it over—thanks. Sit still, all of you! Lower, Li, lower! That's it——"
Li Fu slacked the lowering line about the cleat, and the boat fell away rapidly. Barely in time, too; Barnes perceived a rush of figures coming from the after ladder, and opened fire. They scattered.
There was a moment's breathing spell, while from fore and aft, alow and aloft, rose sing-song calls in Cantonese and the harsher gutturals of the lascars. A rush was being planned from both sides.
Barnes caught a soft call from below, and breathed a prayer of thanks. A number of figures showed at the corner of the chart-house. He emptied his pistol at these, then turned, caught one of the pendants hitched to the davit-head, and let himself go sliding down.
A burst of yells rang out from the bridge deck, but he was in the boat below ere any could reach the rail. The two quartermasters had already put out the oars, and Barnes cast off the line and let the pendants unreeve as the roller whirled. The boat started away from the ship's side.
"Here," came a voice, and Barnes felt one of his own pistols shoved into his hand. "My clip fitted your automatic and——"
"Good girl, Ellen!" he cried out, and laughed as he fired at the rail above. A shot made answer, and a kris sang through the air to splash alongside—but the boat was clear. She drew away from the ship before the mutineers were sure just what had happened.