e actively hostile, lights on
board would be more helpful to the assailants than to the assailed.

When the captain and Tollemache followed Joey's lead, they discerned
three demoniac figures, vaguely outlined by the ruddy glare of the port
light, in the very act of climbing the rails. They fired instantly,
and the naked forms vanished; both men thought they heard the splashing
caused by the leaping or falling of the Indians into the sea. By the
same subdued radiance Courtenay made out the top of a pole or mast
sticking up close to the ship's side. He leaned over, fired a couple
of shots downwards at random, seized the pole, and lashed it to a
stanchion with a loose rope end, a remnant of one of the awnings. A
small craft, even an Indian canoe, would be most useful, and its
capture might tend to scare the attackers.

Telling Tollemache to mount guard, he raced back to the saloon hatch
and summoned assistance. The others searched the ship in small
detachments, but the Indians were gone; it was manifest that none
beyond those driven off at the first onset had secured a footing on
deck. Then, taking the risk of being shot at, Courtenay ordered the
lights to be turned on, and the first person he saw clearly was Elsie.
He was almost genuinely angry with her.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

She was learning not to fear his brusque ways. He was no carpet
knight, and men who carry their lives in their hands do not pick and
choose their words.

"I thought you were in danger, so I came to help," she said calmly.

"You must go back to your cabin at once."

"Why? Of what avail is the safety of my cabin if you are killed?"

A woman's logic is apt to be irritating when one expects a flight of
arrows, or, it may be, a gunshot, out of the blackness a few feet away.

"For goodness' sake, stand here, then," he cried, seizing her arm, and
compelling her to shelter behind the heavy molding which carried the
bridge.

She did not object to his roughness. In the midst of actual peril,
impressions are apt to be cameo-cut in their preciseness, and she liked
him all the more because he treated her quite roughly. Of course, the
mere presence of a woman at such a time was a hindrance. But she was
determined not to return to her stateroom, and, indeed, her obstinacy
was reasonable enough, seeing the condition of affairs on board the
_Kansas_.

The captain quitted her for a moment in order to dispatch a Chilean
sail