“Jerry,” he whispered, “we’ve got to see to it that we get away from here in the fastest boat they have! I wonder if there’s a power boat around?”
“There has to be,” Jerry answered. “Every ship carries lifeboats, and one of them always has power so it can be used as a captain’s launch when necessary.”
“Well, let’s find it!” Sandy whispered.
Gazing over the side, they could see no boat tied up at all. They had to work their way to the other side of the freighter, without once more crossing the telltale path of light from the passageway. To do this, they had to work their way forward to the bow, and then around to the other side of the ship. Slowly, with as much care as they could muster, they dropped to their knees and began to crawl.
They reached the forepeak with no trouble, except the minor difficulties of crawling over the mess of rope and ship’s gear scattered around the disordered deck. As they started back, though, two dark forms appeared in the light of the passage!
“Down!” Sandy whispered, and he and Jerry dropped flat on the deck behind the protection of the windlass. Peering around the corner of the huge machine, with its coil of giant anchor chain, they watched the figures come nearer. Halfway between them and the deckhouse, the shadows stopped, leaning against the bulwark, and lit cigarettes.
In the brief flare of the match, the boys recognized the grim face of Turk. The other man with him was a sailor they had seen on deck with the rest of the crew when they had been taken aboard the freighter. He spoke in a thin, flat, whining voice, with a trace of a foreign accent that might have had its origin in any country in the world, but which by now was simply international. The first words the boys could make out came from Turk.
“This waiting is getting on my nerves,” he rumbled. “What’s keeping us from shoving off?”
“It’s the big businessmen up there,” the sailor whined, jerking his thumb toward the Captain’s quarters. “Jones wants more for the phony dough than he got last time, and the Skipper wants to give him less. The Skipper says he rates a break in the price for getting rid of those kids for Jones. Jones says he’s taking as much risk as the Skipper.”
“And how about us?” Turk asked. “Ain’t we in this as much as them? Where’s the payoff for us?”