. We are dead men."

CHAPTER XI

A COUNCIL OF WAR

"We are dead men," repeated Riggs, smiling grimly. "We'll never see
another day. This slick devil will be back in Manila or up the China
coast, praying his way out of the country with the gold cached somewhere
to wait until he comes for it. He can take enough of it with him to buy a
schooner--part of it is in Bank of England notes--but the Rev. Luther
Meeker will never be heard from again, because _he_ sailed in the
_Kut Sang_."

"He won't!" I raged, testing the weight of the belaying-pin. "I'll batter
my way out of here and take him by the throat if it's the last act of my
life! If you won't fight, I will!"

I braced my feet on the plunging deck of the forecastle and shook my head
like a maddened animal. The seas outside assailed our bows, and
their fury thrilled me, and seemed a part of my desire to slay. I tore
off my jacket and started for the scuttle with the belaying-pin gripped
in my hand, bent on battering down the barrier which kept us from the
upper deck.

"Not that," said Riggs, seizing me. "You'll have them down upon us, or
they'll turn the firehose down the scuttle and drown us like rats. I've
broken too many mutinies, Mr. Trenholm. You can't do that."

"But let's do something," I pleaded. "We might as well be planning
something as to be sitting here weeping over what has happened."

We stopped to listen as the hammering between decks grew louder. The
pirates were smashing the chests that held the gold, and to us in our
prison the noise of their work was ominous--as if they were building a
gallows and we were condemned men.

"They've got it," said Riggs. "When they've stowed the boats with it
they'll open her sea-valves, and down we'll go. If there was a chance in
the world, Mr. Trenholm, I'd fight; but, being a landsman, you don't
understand how these things work out. They are probably driving her
toward the coast now--we've been making an easting, as I can tell from
her roll, and, as they'll be well off the steamer-lanes by daylight, they
may wait until they can see where they will make their landing.

"But, if we give them trouble, they'll make sure of putting us out of the
way before they abandon ship. Take it calm, and we may see a way out of
it; but there is nothing to gain by opening the fight again, fixed as we
are."

"It's a dismal outlook," I confessed, impressed by his coolness in spite
of his surrender to the situation.