er? Is she safe?"

"Think so. They haven't had time to harm her. I think she is in the
next room. Some one was rapping on the wall."

"Code talk!" supplemented the hunchback. "That is Ruth. She thinks I
was caught, too. She has been trying to communicate with me. Must
have heard them put you in here. Which wall?"

He darted to the side of the room Martin indicated, moving lightly and
soundlessly. He started a light tapping on the wall, the same
irregular tapping that had puzzled Martin a few moments before. Hardly
had he begun when faint replies came from the next room.

Martin tiptoed to the door and pressed his ear against it. Events were
crowding him swiftly. He had no time or data for cool reasoning. The
boatswain, the hunchback, the imprisoned woman, Carew, the envelope,
Ichi and Smatt--it was all a mysterious jumble that he had no time to
bother with. His impulse controlled him, and his impulse enlisted him
upon the girl's side against Carew. Little Billy and the boatswain he
accepted without question as friends. Had they not opened the window,
and the way to freedom? So he listened at the door while the hunchback
exchanged signals, alert for alarming sounds from the big room. But he
heard nothing.

For several moments the strange conversation continued through the
wall. Twice, Martin heard the hunchback mutter an oath. Then, after a
final series of raps, the little man left the wall and crept to
Martin's side.

"Yes, she is in there," he announced. "We will have to work swiftly.
What do you know of this house--how constructed?"

Martin described in whispers the plan of the building as he knew
it--the hall and stairs, the large room, the two smaller rooms opening
off it. He also told Little Billy of his own rough experience, though
he did not mention the envelope.

"Spulvedo is on guard on the other side of this door," he concluded.
"He is armed, and he won't hesitate to shoot."

"I know he would shoot," said Little Billy grimly. "So will I shoot,
if necessary. You have been thrust into a desperate business, my
friend. Oh, I understand your position, even better than you,
yourself. I know why you were seized and locked in here. I warn you
truly, you are in some danger. Carew, or any of his crowd, would snuff
you out in an instant if he thought fit. I am not going to ask you to
risk your skin in an affair that does not concern you. There is the
window--the bosun will let yo