There was no hope for help from that quarter, as a glance showed him. Ned was holding back an excited man with long whiskers and of prosperous appearance, who was shouting as if he were a phonograph:
"A thousand dollars for a seat in the boats! A thousand—two thousand dollars for a seat in the boats!"
Suddenly, so suddenly that Herc had not time to guard against it, the stokers made a concerted rush for him.
"Ned! Ned!" shouted the boy, as he felt himself borne down by overwhelming numbers and trampled underfoot.
Ned heard the cry, and in two leaps was in the midst of the scuffle, dealing and receiving blows right and left.
"Do you call yourselves men?" he shouted indignantly, as the stokers fought their way forward in a grim phalanx which there was no resisting.
"It's deuce take the hindmost, and every man for himself now!" shouted a voice in the crowd, and the cowardly mob elbowed forward through the few women that still remained on the stairway and its approaches.
Ned and Herc, who had by this time struggled to his feet, fought desperately to stem the tide. So effective were their blows that for a time they actually succeeded in checking the advance.
"Oh, for a gun!" breathed Ned.