's tunnel.

"By Jingo!" cried Sievers. "I see your game. Let me look, Maclean! This
is my trade."

He bent forward, wrenched at a shoot-bolt, and with a cry of
satisfaction threw back a plate. The _Saigon's_ company crowded round
the man-hole thus revealed, muttering with excitement.

"One moment, Sievers!" cried Maclean, for the engineer had one leg
already in the tunnel. Then he turned to the men. "My lads," he said,
"it's a case of our lives or the Russians', for I firmly believe the
accursed pirates mean to kill us. We must take this ship by hook or by
crook, and I think I see the way to do it!" He concluded with some
precise instructions, and a few savage sentences, in which he promised
an unmentionable fate to the unfortunate who made a sound or failed to
follow to the letter his instructions.

A second later, in a silence that could be felt, he blew out the light,
and followed Sievers into the tunnel. A few cave-black yards, crawled
painfully on hands and knees, slipping and slithering along the
propeller shaft, brought the leaders to the edge of a wider space.
Sievers struck a match, and a well-like, vertical opening was revealed.
High overhead towered and threatened an enormous steel crank. Before
their feet lay a deep pool of slime. The heat was horrible.

"It should be hereabouts," whispered Sievers, and his fingers searched
the wall. For a moment nothing could be heard but the deep breathing of
the _Saigon's_ company. Then came a slight but terrifying clang.

"I've got it!" whispered Sievers. "Are you ready?"

"Right!"

Maclean's eyes were dazzled of a sudden with a hot flare of light, and
the deafening thud of the condensers smote in his ears. He never quite
coherently remembered that which immediately ensued, for something
struck him on the head.

When he came to his full senses again he was lying on a grating beside
the body of the Russian cleaner he had strangled. The _Saigon's_ men
were all around him. He arose, gasping for breath. Sievers thrust a bar
into his hand and pointed to a line of ladders. Maclean nodded, crossed
the grating, and began to climb. Sievers, armed with a hammer, followed
at his heels.

There were three men in the engine-room, an engineer and two cleaners.
They took the climbers for stokers, and went on with their occupations.
Maclean sidled to the door across the grating and closed it in the
twinkling of an eye. The engineer, who was reading a newspaper, heard
the noi