Holding Dickie Lang in his great arms, the red-bearded man saw
his companion fall by his side. With a snarl he released the struggling
girl and shoved her from him. Before he could draw his knife Kenneth
Gregory was upon him.

CHAPTER XI

REFUSING TO BE BLUFFED

Dickie Lang reeled backward as the red-bearded man shoved her from him.
She felt the eel-grass slipping beneath her feet. Striving vainly to
regain her balance, she turned cat-like in the air and broke the fall
with her hands. As she rebounded to her feet she could see Gregory
wrestling with the man who had precipitated the attack. Close by his
side, Tom Howard grappled with the scar-faced islander. The third man
lay huddled on the rocks where he had fallen.

Dickie decided at once upon her course of action. Gregory and Howard
were holding their own against the two men. It was up to her to see that
the third of the islanders did not come to the rescue of his companions.
The man might regain consciousness at any moment. Then there would be
three against two. She remembered suddenly that there was rope on the
_Petrel_. Better than that there was a rifle. It was but a few steps to
the launch. She covered it quickly, caught the main-stay and pulled
herself aboard.

* * * * *

Kenneth Gregory realized at the outset that he was up against a hard
fight. In his hurry to close with the red-bearded man, his foot had
slipped on the slimy grass and he had been forced to clinch to save
himself from falling. This placed him at a marked disadvantage. His
opponent had the best of him in weight by at least twenty pounds and was
heavily muscled. Moreover he possessed a certain agility on the
grass-covered rocks which rendered any attempt on Gregory's part to
force the battle, as extremely hazardous. The islander, at home on the
slippery footing, from the start, became the aggressor.

For a time Gregory was content merely to hold his feet against
Red-beard's rushes and retain his hold on the islander's knife-arm,
should he be possessed of a weapon. Men of that type, he reasoned, were
usually short-winded. In time the heavier man would exhaust himself.
Then his turn would come. Ahead he noticed a clear space, free from
grass. The solid rock would afford good footing. There he would have a
better chance.

If the islander was determined to crowd, he might as well crowd in the
right direction. Gregory changed front slowly, working his