"Let's think of something. There must be a porthole in the cabin."
"Too late. She will have killed herself by then. We must act at once."
He reflected for a moment, then suddenly began to run along the deck and, reaching the hatch of the companion-way, jumped to the bottom. The gangway began with a wider landing where the sentry sat playing cards and drinking.
They rose. One of them commanded:
"Halt! No passage here!"
"All hands on deck! Every man to his post," shouted Simon, repeating Rolleston's words. "At the double! And no quarter! The gold! The rain of gold has started again!"
The men leapt to their feet and made off up the companion. Simon darted down the gangway, ran into one of the two women, whom his shouts had attracted, and flung the same words at her:
"The gold! The rain of gold! Where's the chief?"
"In his cabin," she replied. "Tell him!"
And she made off in her turn.