"H'm!" ejaculated Fielding, who was beginning to realise that action was preferable to a prolonged confinement in a wretchedly furnished cabin. "The conning-tower? But how? And if we did how could we hold it? We've no weapons."
"We might manage to squeeze through that scuttle," suggested Cardyke, warming up to his point.
Fielding gave a dubious glance at the Japanese. General Oki was getting on in years, Mukyima was a big fellow—one of the Samurai—and both might experience difficulty in effecting their escape.
"No fear; we can do," exclaimed Oki, "Hokosuka, he take pistols from men without knowing it." And turning to his companions the Japanese general explained that plans were being formed to make a stand against the piratical crew.
Fielding opened the scuttle. Although broad of shoulder he could, by holding one arm above his head, and the other against his side, pass the widest part of his massive form through the circular aperture. Mukyima then tried, and by a wonderful contraction of his muscular body, squeezed his shoulders through without any apparent difficulty.
"The scuttle is only four feet below the upper deck," said Fielding. "I'll go first; there's the boat-boom lashed just beneath us. We can stand on that, use the rise of the scupper as a foothold, and raise ourselves up over the side. If all is quiet we can creep cautiously for'ard. If not we must wait till we are all ready to make a rush, then run for the conning-tower as fast as we know how."
Oki expressed himself satisfied with the arrangements, and shortly after midnight Fielding was assisted through the narrow opening. Cardyke and Hokosuka gripped his ankles, and for a short space of time he hung head downwards till his hands came in contact with the boom.
"All right—let go," he whispered, as the Independencia listed to port, and as agile as a cat he landed on the rounded spar. Ere the vessel heeled in the other direction the sub. had secured a firm hold upon the rim of the scuttle, his feet planted upon the boom. Then cautiously he climbed till his head was just above the level of the deck.
It was almost pitch dark. A screened light was burning in the chart-room, and the glow of a dozen cigarettes showed that some of the crew whose watch on deck it was, were taking things as agreeably as they possibly could, shielding from the keen wind behind the starboard 'midship barbette.
"All clear," he said, in a low voice. "You are the youngest and most active, Cardyke. Hang on till the last, and I will give you a leg-up."