ck stared at it with fixed eyes, the closet door remained ajar.
Then very slowly, very quietly, it was drawn to, until it clicked, and
was firmly closed. On the instant, then, Dick moved.

He took the chance of being heard, and made a swift dash for the boat.
His reason was a twofold one. For one thing, it offered the only
possible place of concealment, aside from the closet that Mike Hallo had
already preempted for himself, and it contained the weapons of which
Steve had told him. Dick knew how to use a pistol, and he felt that with
a gun of some sort in his possession he would have a chance at least
with Hallo, even if he were armed. He would not hesitate to shoot, he
told himself, if he had to. He had reason enough to believe that Hallo
would not spare him, and in self-defence he would be justified in taking
any means to save himself.

But he did not think it was particularly likely that it would come to
anything so desperate now as a hand-to-hand struggle. He was recovering
his nerve, and the panic that had possessed him when he had first seen
Hallo's face had passed. Once he was in the boat, well concealed by the
steel hood, he felt that the odds were in his favor, rather than against
him, and he could stop to think and reason, which he had certainly not
been able to do in the first moment of shocked surprise.

He felt the main thing that favored him was that Hallo was at least as
badly frightened as he was himself. And that, after all, stood to
reason. The very fact that the man was here at all seemed to Dick proof
that he knew the character of this place, and that he was here as a spy.
Then he would naturally be startled by a sudden sound, for he would
think that it betokened the return of one of the Servian spies who used
this as a hiding place and refuge.

"He would know, of course," Dick thought, "that they wouldn't hesitate
any more over shooting him than if he were a mad dog. They couldn't,
because he isn't threatening only their safety by being here, but their
whole plan. And men who are brave enough to be spies in time of war
aren't thinking of themselves at all, but of their country."

This was comforting reasoning for Dick, because it made it vastly
improbable that Hallo would come out to look for him. He would be
concerned with the problem of escaping himself; he would not think of
looking for anyone else, but of preventing someone who was looking for
him from finding him. So it seemed likely to Dic