“I saw Jones hit you,” Sandy said, “and he sure wasn’t making any special effort to be gentle. I guess that Bull, the big sailor, got me from behind when I turned to go after Jones.”
Still rubbing his head, Jerry sat up in his bunk and faced his friend. “Sandy,” he asked, “what made you take a swing at Bull like that? You sure must have known that the two of us didn’t stand much of a chance in a fight against three men with guns!”
“I don’t suppose I was really thinking at all,” Sandy answered. “I know it was a pretty foolish thing to do, but there was just something about Bull’s laugh.... Anyway, I’m sorry. It could have got us killed right then and there, I guess. As it is, I think we’re lucky to have got away with nothing more than a couple of headaches.”
“What do you mean, a couple?” Jerry said. “I’ve got two myself!”
Both boys laughed, but as their laughter died down, they became more serious than they had been before.
“Look, we can sit here and make jokes about the situation until they get us out to that freighter,” Sandy said, “but that isn’t going to help us to figure out a way to escape and get to the police.”
“You’re perfectly right,” Jerry agreed. “We’d better scout around and size things up while we’ve got a chance.”
“And we’d better do it fast,” Sandy added. “We don’t know how long we’ve been knocked out, so we haven’t any idea how much time we have left before we arrive at the freighter. And by then, it might very well be too late to do anything for ourselves at all.”
Half rising from their bunks, for the cabin roof was too low to allow them full standing headroom, they moved aft to the sliding doors that separated them from the cockpit. Gently testing the doors, Sandy found that they were locked, as he had assumed they would be. A crack of light showed where the two halves of the door met, and he placed his eye to it. With a frown, he turned around to look at Jerry.
“Boy, they’re not taking any chances this time,” he whispered. “Both of the sailors are out there in the cockpit, and the one called Turk has his pistol in his hand, and it’s pointed right at this door!”