h
before you get out of it. Speak a word or make a movement and I'll blow
your brains out against the partition behind you! Listen to what I say
or you are a dead man. Sing out an order instantly for my mate and my
bos'n to come here to the cabin, and be quick about it, for my finger's
on the trigger, and it's only a pull to shut your mouth forever."

It was astonishing to Mainwaring, in afterward thinking about it all,
how quickly his mind began to recover its steadiness after that first
astonishing shock. Even as the other was speaking he discovered that his
brain was becoming clarified to a wonderful lucidity; his thoughts were
becoming rearranged, and with a marvelous activity and an alertness
he had never before experienced. He knew that if he moved to escape or
uttered any outcry he would be instantly a dead man, for the circle of
the pistol barrel was directed full against his forehead and with the
steadiness of a rock. If he could but for an instant divert that fixed
and deadly attention he might still have a chance for life. With the
thought an inspiration burst into his mind and he instantly put it into
execution; thought, inspiration, and action, as in a flash, were one. He
must make the other turn aside his deadly gaze, and instantly he roared
out in a voice that stunned his own ears: "Strike, bos'n! Strike,
quick!"

Taken by surprise, and thinking, doubtless, that another enemy stood
behind him, the pirate swung around like a flash with his pistol leveled
against the blank boarding. Equally upon the instant he saw the trick
that had been played upon him and in a second flash had turned again.
The turn and return had occupied but a moment of time, but that moment,
thanks to the readiness of his own invention, had undoubtedly saved
Mainwaring's life. As the other turned away his gaze for that brief
instant Mainwaring leaped forward and upon him. There was a flashing
flame of fire as the pistol was discharged and a deafening detonation
that seemed to split his brain. For a moment, with reeling senses, he
supposed himself to have been shot, the next he knew he had escaped.
With the energy of despair he swung his enemy around and drove him with
prodigious violence against the corner of the table. The pirate emitted
a grunting cry and then they fell together, Mainwaring upon the top, and
the pistol clattered with them to the floor in their fall. Even as
he fell, Mainwaring roared in a voice of thunder, "All hand