Its opening, at the height of a man's
head, is screened with iron bars so closely set that no mature-bodied
rat can squeeze between. Also, this opening commands the wheel,
which is a scant fifteen feet away and directly across the booby-
hatch. Some mutineer, crawling along the space between the coal and
the deck of the lower hold, had climbed the ventilator shaft and was
able to take aim through the slits between the bars.
Practically simultaneously, I saw the out-rush of smoke and heard the
report. I heard a grunt from Henry, and, turning my head, saw him
cling to the spokes and turn the wheel half a revolution as he sank
to the deck. It must have been a lucky shot. The boy was perforated
through the heart or very near to the heart--we have no time for
post-mortems on the Elsinore.
Tom Spink and the second sail-maker, Uchino, sprang to Henry's side.
The revolver continued to go off through the ventilator slits, and
the bullets thudded into the front of the half wheel-house all about
them. Fortunately they were not hit, and they immediately scrambled
out of range.
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