dge," he said. "And you, Riley, to your engines."

Riley obeyed the call of the exigency; but Forsythe resisted. He struck
Munson's fist away, but received it immediately full in the face.
Staggering back, he pulled his revolver; and, before Munson could meet
this new antagonism, he aimed and fired. Munson lurched headlong, and
lay still.

Then an uproar began. The others charged on Forsythe, who retreated,
with his weapon at arm's length. He held them off until, at his command,
all but one had placed his pistol back in the scabbard. The dilatory one
was old Kelly; and him Forsythe shot through the heart. Then the pistols
were redrawn, and the shooting became general.

How Forsythe, single-handed against the eight remaining men, won in that
gun fight can only be explained by the fact that the eight were too
wildly excited to aim, or leave each other free to attempt aiming; while
Forsythe, a single target, only needed to shoot at the compact body of
men to make a hit.

It ended soon with Hawkes, Davis, and Daniels writhing on the deck, and
Forsythe hiding, uninjured, behind the forward funnel; while Riley,
King, and Dwyer, the three engineers, were retreating into their engine
room.

"Now, if you've had enough," shouted Forsythe, "start the engine when I
give you the bells." Then he mounted to the bridge and took the wheel.

But, though the starting of the engines at full speed indicated that the
engineers had had enough, there was one man left who had not. It was
Billings, who danced around the dead and the wounded, shrieking and
laughing with the emotions of his disordered brain. But he did not fire
on Forsythe, and seemed to have forgotten the animus of the recent
friction.

He drifted aft, muttering to himself, until suddenly he stopped, and
fixed his eyes on Denman, who, with gritting teeth, had watched the
deadly fracas at the companion.

"I told you so. I told you so," rang out the crazed voice of Billings.
"A woman aboard ship--a woman aboard ship. Always makes trouble. There,
take it!"

He pulled his revolver and fired; and Denman, stupefied with the
unexpected horror of it all, did not know that Florrie had crept up
beside him in the companion until he heard her scream in conjunction
with the whiz of the bullet through her hair. Then Denman awoke.

After assuring himself of the girl's safety, and pushing her down the
companion, he drew his revolver; and, taking careful aim, executed
Billings with t