Dick’s illness interfered with these plans; but the night that the storm broke he had forced himself to rise from his bunk, and despite his weakness he determined to try to remove the partition separating him from the next room. It was in panels, as he knew, and with the aid of his knife, which, luckily, the men in possession of the yacht had not thought worth taking from him, he succeeded in removing the screws that held one of the panels in place.
He lifted the panel out and found himself looking into the next cabin.
It was brilliantly lighted and, to his astonishment, the walls were lined with racks in which were rifles and pistols. It was, in fact, Medway’s cabin, to which he had removed the yacht’s armory so as to have it out of the way of any of the crew who might take it into their heads to form a second mutiny.
While the yacht rolled and plunged in the hurricane, Dick climbed through the hole made by removing the panel. Once in the cabin he stood stock still, undetermined what to do. After a minute’s reflection he decided to see if the door would open. But he had hardly taken a step with this intention in view when the door was flung violently open and Hemming stood before him.
For one instant both stood perfectly still. Dick’s knees shook under him. Even in his usual health he would have been no match for the burly Hemming, but as it was he felt incapable of putting up even the most feeble resistance.
“You young imp of Satan, what are you doing in here?” bellowed Hemming, with a snarl like an angry tiger.
He raised his fist and sprang forward. Dick, more by instinct than anything else, seized one of the pistols hanging on the wall. Hemming paused as the boy leveled the weapon at him. But the next instant he sprang forward as if to fell the boy to the ground. Dick jumped back to avoid a heavy blow and his finger involuntarily pressed the trigger.
A click resulted, but there was no explosion.
The weapon was unloaded. With a shout of triumph Hemming rushed him, but just as his hands were on Dick’s throat there came a stunning crash that hurled them both to the floor.
When Dick, who had rolled under a bunk with the force of the upheaval, regained his feet, he was alone in the cabin. Dazed and half stunned, he stood still trying to collect his thoughts. Suddenly there came a mighty pounding on the wall of the cabin he had just left. This was accompanied by muffled shouts.