Jim had already leaped into the forward cabin of the Libertad, and with his pistol aimed toward the deck of the vessel just above, was warning off those who wanted to leap down. They stopped, not daring to leap.
Nicky got his arms free, threw the rope impatiently off and bent over Cliff. His chum lay inert, stunned by the shock as his head had struck the wood in his fall.
Nicky turned, to look for the knife, to free Tom.
On the cabin top the man on watch gave over firing and shouted a hoarse warning!
“The cutter!” he roared, “she’s coming!”
Full speed up the channel came Lieutenant Sommerlee’s craft, with Brownie, the lieutenant and the two sailors forward, Mr. Neale at the tiller, aft.
The men on the Senorita leaped to the water, Jack and Sam coming from concealment, standing erect, ordering them to surrender and firing at their heads as they scrambled for the islet and cover on the farther shore.
In the cabin of the Libertad the two men, Mr. Coleson and Don Ortiga, called to Senor Ortiga, who was on the deck of the Senorita, and at the same time a rifle ball, from the man on the cabin, aimed quickly at Jim, cut into the flesh of the colored man’s arm and he dropped his weapon.
Without an instant’s hesitation, Senor Ortiga leaped upon him, landed in the cabin, bent double, knocking Jim aside, and began to reach for the wheel, as Tew, leaping for the spark lever, advanced the spark, and at the same time threw the gear lever out of mesh with the bilge pump and into the gear with the engine propeller shaft.
As the engine took the spark and began to roar, Mr. Coleson, his face white, leaped past Tew to get to the cabin windows and thus to jump out into the channel and take his chance on swimming clear.