It was ready and waiting.
The carroty-topped boy crouched low, resting his hands on his knees, after the manner of a football player awaiting an assault.
Kamanako slid in close. Ere Eph could seize him the Japanese let himself fall lightly on one side. One of his feet hooked itself behind Eph's advanced left ankle, the other foot pressing against the knee of the same leg. Eph's ankle was yanked forward, his knee pressed back, and Somers went toppling as a tree in the forest does.
Kamanako was so quickly on his feet again to suggest that he had fallen and risen in the same movement. There was a quiet, yet dangerous, smile on the face of the Japanese.
The door of the engine room opened swiftly though noiselessly.
Williamson, the machinist, took in the whole scene instantly. Hardly a
full step forward he took when his fist landed between the shoulders of
Kamanako, sending that young Japanese through the air, to land sprawling.
As Kamanako leaped to his feet he found himself blinking at the muzzle of a revolver that the machinist held in his right hand.
CHAPTER VI
THE LITTLE RUSSIAN HAS HER WAY
"Don't get troublesome," advised the machinist, softly. "I've never shot a Jap, but I've always wanted to."
There was a flicker of a grin in Williamson's face that found a reflection in Kamanako's own features.