“Naw! You don’t understand. Naw, I should say not he didn’t want to leave anybody. I told you he was a reg’lar guy. And there with the brains, too. He was just playing up to Brack. But cappy says he couldn’t think of leaving without—well, you know; he’s a pretty wicked guy.”
“I understand,” said Betty quietly. “Well?”
“So the boss pretended to have a fit, and did a lot of fancy stalling. You see now, don’t you: the boss is putting cappy off his guard and laying for a chance to jump the bunch and get control of the yacht.”
“But, great heavens!” I expostulated. “They’ve no arms, and they’re outnumbered.”
“Well, they ain’t outnumbered so bad,” said Pierce. “There’s the boss, and Wilson, and Doc Olson, and Simmons, and the big nigger. Oh, yes; we got the nigger with us. I know he wanted to get Garvin, and felt him out. He’s only waiting to be turned loose.”
“It’s impossible,” said I. “Brack and his men are armed to the teeth.”
“That’s the trouble. If we’d had a gun apiece there’d been something doing this morning while the cap was away. But the cap’s cleaned the boat of guns and got ’em in his possession, ’cept one Doc’ Olson copped off one of the men who was shot. So Wilson told me what to do, and I sneaked an iron bar into his room and two into the boss’s, one for him and one for Simmons, and the nigger’s got a knife down one pants leg and a club down the other. When the chance comes they’re going to try to put cappy out of business while the nigger gets Garvin. The rest of ’em don’t amount to much. The trouble is the chance don’t come.
“The boss was worried about you last night. He said we’d have to try to get some grub to you since we didn’t have a chance to get the yacht. The last thing he says to me last night was, ‘Remember, we’ve got to get some grub to ’em tomorrow no matter what happens to us.’
“Well, when the cap went away this morning after he heard that shot, he set Barry to watching the boss and Simmons, and Doc’ all in the boss’s room. Garvin was set to doing a watch aft, and Riordan was set to pacing the deck to watch everything in general. The two guys who was hurt had guns, too. I knew Barry’d get the boss if we tried to start anything, so I just put on Wilson’s sweater and stuffed it full of food, and got my gun and waited for a chance to get away without being seen. But there was Garvin aft, near the shore I wanted to make, and Riordan doing the rounds. But I remembered what the boss’d said about getting you grub, and when Riordan was forward I took a chance.
“Garvin turned around just as I was getting ready to clout him and he got the butt right in the temple. Then I did a dive, and if I’d had ten feet farther to swim it would have been a ‘good-by Freddy,’ because the grub and rifle was pretty heavy, and Riordan took one shot at me just as I made the brush. Then I hiked it and swam the river, and I was hiding when you stood up and swore at cappy.”