s, removed the gag, and motioned him
to follow them. Bert, seeing no sense in useless resistance, did as
directed.

As he approached the port rail, he saw that a group of sailors gathered
there were lowering some object over the side. As he reached the rail
and looked down, he saw that it was a large, flat bottomed rowboat, with
nothing in it except a wooden bailer shaped like an ordinary shovel.

This boat was quickly lowered until it touched the water, and then Bert
saw what had previously escaped his notice--namely, that several holes,
each about as large as a five-cent piece, had been bored in the bottom of
the boat, and through these the water was rushing in a dozen little
fountains.

Then he realized what were the intentions of his captors, and his heart,
which at sight of the boat had begun to beat hopefully, seemed to turn to
lead. This, then, was to be his end! With fiendish ingenuity, the Japs
had prepared this death-trap for him, knowing that he would fight up to
the last moment from the instinct of self preservation. The enemy of
Japan should not die too easily. His agony must be prolonged. According
to their calculations, the water would continue coming in faster than
Bert could possibly bail it out, and eventually he would sink, and his
perilous knowledge with him.

Well, at any rate, he resolved to make his enemies sorry that they had
ever seen him. As the sailors came toward him with the evident intention
of forcing him into the boat, he grasped a camp chair that was standing
near the rail, and swinging it in a mighty circle about his head, brought
it crashing down on the head of the foremost seaman. The man dropped as
though struck by lightning, and for a second his comrades hesitated,
looking about them for weapons.

At a crisp command from an officer, who was standing a little to one
side, they came on again with a rush. Bert felled the first of his
antagonists with the stout chair, and then, as they were too close upon
him for further use of this weapon, dropped it and resorted to his fists.
He struck out right and left with all the strength of his powerful
muscles, and for a few seconds actually held his swarming assailants at
bay. Three men dropped before his hammer-like blows, before he was
finally forced over the railing by sheer force of numbers and hurled into
the rowboat.

As he struck it, the water spurted through the holes in the boat, and a
shrill cackling laugh came from