He made a superhuman effort to get off the locker, but the last particle of strength left him in a flash, and he rolled backward.
[CHAPTER VII.]
RUBBING ELBOWS WITH DEATH.
Matt had neither the time nor the strength to manifest any surprise over the startling revelation made by Glennie. Not only that, but his brain was in such a condition it was well-nigh incapable of surprise.
In that critical moment when he felt a terrifying helplessness surely but steadily creeping over him, he centred every effort on the attempt to make Ah Sin a prisoner.
Swiftly as a lightning flash the idea struck through Matt's brain that the Chinaman had all to do with the baffling situation aboard the Grampus. If Matt could drag him down and secure him he felt that, at a later moment, the treacherous Celestial might be dealt with as his evil deeds justified.
But the work the king of the motor boys had mapped out for himself exceeded his powers. There was none to come to his aid. Below, in the tank room and motor room, was a silence undisturbed by human voice or movement, and there, in the periscope chamber, the only noise to be heard was the deep breathing of Matt's unconscious friends and the rattling sounds of the scuffle going forward between the young motorist and Ah Sin.
The slouch hat and the false queue were kicked into one corner. Ah Sin's long, lean fingers were gripping Matt's throat. There was no look of hate, or anger, or even of determination in the Chinaman's face; the expression was blank and saturnine, as though he was merely a tool, operated by wires like a puppet and carrying out the will of some one in high authority.
Suddenly, putting forth all his strength, Ah Sin lifted Matt by the throat and threw him bodily across Speake and against the edge of the locker. Matt tried to rise, but found it impossible.