d out from under it,
grasped it across the beam, raised it high, brought two of the legs down
against the deck, once, twice; reversed the ends and brought the other
two legs down to the deck, once, twice. The legs were gone.

He set the table top on his head. A man stood in the doorway. Cadogan
motioned him out of the way. "Where yuh goin' with that?" snarled the
man. Cadogan set the end of his plank against the man's chest, walked
straight ahead, and stepped over the man's body. In the passageway some
one seized his table from behind. Cadogan let go entirely, wheeled
sharply, caught the man by the collar and trousers, smashed him against
the bulkhead, and, as the other dropped his hold of the table top, threw
him a dozen feet down the passage. The man, rising to his feet, ran the
other way. Cadogan picked up his plank and resumed his way.

At a place where a boat-falls dropped past the ship's rail Cadogan laid
down his burden. This was on the lowest open deck, where not many people
would be coming to bother him; but, to reduce the chance of loss, he set
his table top up on edge in the shadow of the rail, while he went off
for an armful of steamer chairs.

He needed lashings for his chairs. A transverse passageway opened on to
the deck near by. Staterooms opened off either side of the passage. The
door of the nearest room was locked. "Bright people," he muttered, "who
didn't intend anybody should steal anything while they were gone!" He
set one foot under the door-knob, rested his back against the bulkhead
across the narrow aisle, and straightened his leg. The lock gave way;
the door swung open. "When they return I hope you won't miss the fine
bed sheets," he murmured, and swished them--one, two--from the berths,
with the blankets and one pillow. He slit the hemmed edges of the sheets
and tore them into strips lengthwise. With these strips he lashed his
chairs compactly together. The chairs in turn he lashed to the heavy
plank.

Cadogan had taken off dinner coat, waistcoat, collar, tie, and linen
shirt to work more freely. Now he looked about for the coat. All the
while he had been working he was not unaware that forms of men had
flitted by him, and that more than one had stopped as if curious to know
what he was at. He knew that more than one of these were now prowling
within leaping distance and that from them were coming muffled words of
comment. Also he was not unaware that the ship was nearing her end. He
could