he could to get his gun. If he
did not hurry he was certain they would kill Lund. No man could
withstand those odds much longer.

And, Lund killed, hell would break loose. It would be his turn next, and
the girl would be left at their mercy. The thought spurred him, cleared
his throbbing head, jarred by the smashes of his still senseless
opponent who would be coming to before long.

Then he saw the girl, standing by the rail, not crouching, as he had
somehow expected her to be, shutting out the sight of the fight with
trembling hands, but with her face aglow, her eyes shining, watching, as
a Roman maid might have watched a gladiatorial combat; thrilled with the
spectacle, hands gripping the rail, leaning a little forward.

She did not notice Rainey as he crept by Hansen, still guiding the
schooner, holding her to her course, imperturbable, apparently careless
of the issue. As he staggered down the stairs the line of thought he had
pursued in his bunk, broken by the noise of the fight and his
participation, flashed up in his brain.

This was sex, primitive, predominant! The girl must sense what might
happen to her if Lund went down. She had no eyes for Rainey, her soul
was up in arms, backing Lund. The shine in her eyes was for the strength
of his prime manhood, matched against the rest, not as a person, an
individual, but as an embodiment of the conquering male.

He got the gun, and he snatched a drink of brandy that ran through his
veins like quick fire, revivifying him so that he ran up the ladder and
came on deck ready to take a decisive hand.

But he found it no easy matter to risk a shot in that swirling mass.
They all seemed to be arm weary. Blows no longer rose and fell. Lund was
slowly dragging the dead weight of them all toward the mast. The two men
on the deck still lay there. Rainey's opponent was trying to get up,
wiping clumsily at the blood on his face, blinded.

The girl still stood by the rail. Back of the wrestling mass stood the
seamen, offering to take no part, their arms aswing like apes, their
dull faces working. Tamada stood by the forward companion, his arms
folded, indifferent, neutral.

[Illustration: Then he saw the girl standing by the rail]

All this Rainey saw as he circled, while the mass whirled like a
teetotum. The action raced like an overtimed kinetoscopic film. A man
broke loose from the scrimmage, on the opposite side from Rainey, who
barely recognized the disheveled fig