into the muzzle of his
revolver--of the revolver he dared to use on me, but was too cowardly
to use on the prisoners.

My brain seemed smitten with a dazzling brightness. The whole situation,
in all its bearings, was focussed sharply before me--the shame of
losing the prisoners, the worthlessness and cowardice of George, the
meeting with Le Grant and the other patrol-men and the lame explanation;
and then there was the fight I had fought so hard, victory wrenched
from me just as I thought I had it within my grasp. And out of the tail
of my eye I could see the Chinese crowding together by the cabin doors
and leering triumphantly. It would never do.

I threw my hand up and my head down. The first act elevated the muzzle,
and the second removed my head from the path of the bullet which went
whistling past. One hand closed on George's wrist, the other on the
revolver. Yellow Handkerchief and his gang sprang toward me. It was now
or never. Putting all my strength into a sudden effort, I swung
George's body forward to meet them. Then I pulled back with equal
suddenness, ripping the revolver out of his fingers and jerking him off
his feet. He fell against Yellow Handkerchief's knees, who stumbled over
him, and the pair wallowed in the bailing hole where the cockpit floor
was torn open. The next instant I was covering them with my revolver,
and the wild shrimp-catchers were cowering and cringing away.

But I swiftly discovered that there was all the difference in the world
between shooting men who are attacking and men who are doing nothing
more than simply refusing to obey. For obey they would not when I
ordered them into the bailing hole. I threatened them with the revolver,
but they sat stolidly in the flooded cabin and on the roof and would
not move.

Fifteen minutes passed, the _Reindeer_ sinking deeper and deeper, her
mainsail flapping in the calm. But from off the Point Pedro shore I saw
a dark line form on the water and travel toward us. It was the steady
breeze I had been expecting so long. I called to the Chinese and
pointed it out. They hailed it with exclamations. Then I pointed to the
sail and to the water in the _Reindeer_, and indicated by signs that
when the wind reached the sail, what of the water aboard we would
capsize. But they jeered defiantly, for they knew it was in my power to
luff the helm and let go the main-sheet, so as to spill the wind and
escape damage.

But my mind was made up. I hauled in