“Now, Karl!” he said. “Shoot him dead if he stirs!” And he snatched a sheet from the bed, tore it into strips, walked over to Neeland, and deftly tied him hand and foot and gagged him.
Then Golden Beard and Ali Baba, between them, lifted the young man and seated him on the iron bed and tied him fast to it.
“Go out on deck!” said Golden Beard to Ilse Dumont.
“Let me stay––”
“No! You have acted like a fool. Go to the lower deck where is our accustomed rendezvous.”
“I wish to remain, Johann. I shall not interfere––”
“Go to the lower deck, I tell you, and be ready to tie that rope ladder!”
Ali Baba, down on his knees, had pulled out a steamer trunk from under the bed, opened it, and was lifting out three big steel cylinders.
These he laid on the bed in a row beside the tied man; and Golden Beard, still facing Ilse Dumont, turned his head to look. 241
The instant his head was turned the girl snatched a pistol from the brace of weapons on the washstand and thrust it under her cloak. Neither Golden Beard nor Ali Baba noticed the incident; the latter was busy connecting the three cylinders with coils of wire; the former, deeply interested, followed the operation for a moment or two, then walking over to the trunk, he lifted from it a curious little clock with two dials and set it on the railed shelf of glass above the washstand.