ab to the
jaw. My clinched knuckles crunched against the flesh, and he reeled
back, kept from falling only by the support of the deckhouse. There
was no report of a weapon, no outcry, yet, before I could strike again,
I was suddenly gripped from behind by a pair of arms, which closed
about my throat like a vise, throttling me instantly into silent
helplessness. I struggled madly to break free, straining with all the
art of a wrestler, exerting every ounce of strength, but the grasp
which held me was unyielding, robbing me of breath, and defeating every
effort to call for help; Kirby, dazed yet by my sudden blow, and eager
to take a hand in the affray, struck me a cowardly blow in the face,
and swung his undischarged pistol to a level with my eyes.

"Damn you!" he ejaculated, and for the first time his voice really
exhibited temper. "I'd kill you with this, but for the noise. No, by
God! there is a safer way than that to settle with you. Have you got
the skunk, Carver?"

"You can bet I have, Joe. I kin choke the life out o' him--shall I?"

"No; let up a bit--just enough so he can answer me first, I want to
find out what all this means. Now look here, Knox, you're an army
officer, are you?"

"Yes," I managed to gasp, sobbing in an effort to catch breath, as the
iron fingers at my throat relaxed slightly.

"Well then, what is all this to you? Why are you butting in on my
game? Was Beaucaire a friend of yours?"

"I can hardly claim that," I admitted. "We never met until I came
aboard this steamer. All I am interested in is justice to others."

"To others? Oh, I suppose you mean those girls--you know them then?"

"I have never even seen them," I said, now speaking more easily.
"Thockmorton chanced to tell me about them yesterday, and their
condition appealed to me, just as it naturally would to any true man.
I thought probably you did not understand the situation, and hoped that
if I told you the truth you might respond."

"Oh, you did, did you? You must have figured me as being pretty soft.
Well, what do you think now?"

His tone so completely ended my hope of compromise that I replied
hotly, "That you are a dirty, piratical cur. I may have doubted your
purpose at first, for I am not used to your kind, but this is so no
longer. You deliberately ruined and robbed Beaucaire, in order to gain
possession of these two girls. You have admitted as much."

He laughed, in no way angered by my plain spee