Epworth gave this idea consideration for some time. Finally he smiled.
“Did Toplinsky know that you were guarding us in the storeroom?”
“If he did it was an accident. He seldom pays attention to such small details. I was sent in by Kosloff.”
“Fine. I see how we can eel out of this. You can go out, and talk to the guard. While you are talking Billy and I will slip out and help you knock him out; then we will drag him in here, put him in the closet, and you can take his place. Toplinsky will not know that there has been a change of guards, and will think that he is the man we knocked out in the beginning.”
“Sounds easy.”
Michael nonchalantly opened the door, and slid out into the companionway. Immediately the guard threw a gun down on him.
“You can’t come out here,” the guard snarled in a surly way. “The general instructed me to let no one pass.”
“I’m not trying to pass,” Michael protested carelessly, “but I’m fed up with guarding that bunch inside. How would you like to exchange places?”
“Not me. I’m staying where the general put me.”
Michael carelessly stepped up to the guard.