"Now call one of the others," he commanded of the bandit leader, dragging him to where he would not be visible to anyone approaching the door. "Call one, and only one; if two come I'll kill you instantly."
The man maintained a stubborn silence. Jack pushed the gun against his forehead. The man winced and drew back. The pressure of the gun was increased. Abruptly the fellow called out for one of his companions to step upstairs for a moment.
"Give the slightest warning and you're done," Jack threatened. As the second man could be heard coming down the hallway, Jack took a position along the wall, close to the door. Just as the fellow appeared the powerful fist of the young giant shot out with sledge-hammer force, catching the unprepared victim directly on the point of the jaw. He went down without a sound, and before he regained consciousness he was bound, gagged and thrown helpless into a dark corner.
Three times was this repeated, and then Jack, forcing a gag into the leader's mouth, so that no one could utter a cry of warning to the single bandit remaining on guard below, tiptoed downstairs and had that fellow covered with his gun before the man was aware of his presence.
He made as though to shoot, but Jack was too quick for him. He fired before the bandit could get his arm raised, and the bullet caught him directly through the wrist.
"Quick!" Jack ordered, snatching up the revolver which the wounded man had dropped upon the floor. "They may have confederates. We can't take a chance in wasting time around here."
At break-neck speed he led the way down the hill, along the shore-line and to the anchored motorboat. As Fred, who was last, jumped aboard, Jack started the engine, grabbed the wheel, and in two minutes they were racing out of the little bay at thirty miles an hour, leaving a great, white-capped trough in their wake.
It might have been twenty miles or so that they traveled along the shore-line, when they sighted a thriving town.
"Guess we can find a telegraph office here," said Jack, "and maybe we can get a train for Liverpool or Dover."
They ran the speed craft close up to one of the piers and jumped ashore.