Forward, at George’s stateroom, there was a tumult; then cries and shots. The door was locked, and as I came running up, Pierce and Dr. Olson were fighting Riordan, and the man who had detected me on the ladder. In the stateroom George and Simmons were battling to keep their guards from joining the fight on deck.
I leaped upon Riordan from behind and Wilson, with his iron bar, began to beat down the door. Barry had recovered consciousness and with one of my pistols came hurrying forward, dancing around seeking for a chance to shoot one of us.
Pierce was knocked down, and as Barry sprang toward him, Wilson turned, and hurled himself clumsily at the fellow’s legs. Barry fell, leaped up, and still holding the revolver, went over the side. The other seaman did likewise at the sight of Wilson, and Riordan, felled by the butt of Dr. Olson’s revolver, soon followed his example.
“—— ’im! He copped my rifle, too!” spluttered Pierce, Riordan having snatched the weapon from the deck as he went over the side.
In the cabin cracked a shot and there came a shriek which we knew to be Simmons’s. Three of us threw our weight with Wilson’s, and the door went in.
George was on his feet, throttling one of the guards over a chair. Simmons lay like a bundle of old clothes in a corner. Near by the other guard, on all fours, strove to rise and fell flat. Wilson’s right fist smote George’s victim senseless and Chanler stood up, gory and calm.
“They’ve hurt Simmons bad,” he said. “Poor old Simmons. My fault. But I’ll pay that devil, Brack, out if I never do anything else as long as I live.”
The negro had cornered Garvin in the dining-saloon. These two had ceased to resemble human beings. They were all but naked, and their nakedness was red, with spots of white or black showing through. Garvin was crouching on one side of the table with a knife, and at the sight of the negro’s empty hands we sprang to help.
“Don’t spoil it, white folks, don’t spoil it!” growled the negro, moving toward his victim. “I done got ’im; he’s mah meat—mah meat!”
He knocked the knife from Garvin’s hand somehow. Then they wrecked the room with their hurtling falling bodies. The roar of battle rose to a crescendo and began to diminish. Garvin was losing.