While I bawled for him to tell me what helm she carried, I was aware of a figure crawling from the companionway to the after cabin. It came creeping up just under me, up the almost perpendicular deck, and it looked like a big monkey until it came right into me, and then I recognized Komuri, our little steward.
Komuri was yellow, a pasty yellow, and his wrinkled face looked old and haggard. He was only partly dressed, and he clawed the rail frantically for a hand hold. He looked the worst-scared Jap I had ever seen or dreamed of. He climbed close to me.
"Men locked in—all die—ports open," he screeched in my ear.
"I know—can't help it—door under water—no tools," I yelled in reply, and he howled something that ended in a screech that was unintelligible, for over it all sounded that deep, bass roar, thundering, booming, vibrating into chaos all sounds.
I watched him, and he climbed past me, making his way forward with amazing speed, considering he was crawling along a wall which had been the deck. He made the break of the poop, and disappeared, going in the direction of the forward house, although how he ever expected to get there was beyond reason.
Something made me follow him, and soon Slade and myself were at the edge of the poop, and gazing down at the partly submerged door of the starboard alleyway. While we looked, Komuri came climbing along the rail of the ship, disappearing now and then under the solid water that swept her, but, to our amazement, still keeping hold of the pins, and gaining slowly toward us.
In one hand he held Oleson's ax, and he was coming toward us, coming to do a piece of work we had already given up as impossible.
No word was spoken as Komuri struggled up to where we clung and gasped for breath, half drowned in the rush of water.
I passed the end of a line about him after a fashion, and he dropped off to starboard down the steep slant, and instantly went under as a huge sea fell over the schooner.
We held the line. Then we saw him again, and he was hacking away at the door, chopping at the lock and staple while he swung scrambling with his feet against the planks. Slade thoughtfully dropped down other lines, and made them fast.