With that he opened the door, reeled back before the force of the wind and the swirling gray hail of rain, then lowered his head and charged through, pulling the door to behind him.
“So that explains why we’ve been kept below here,” said Mr. Temple thoughtfully. “Well, the prospect if we fall into the hands of the Chinese crew doesn’t look pleasant.”
“I’ve heard,” said Jack, “that the Chinese idolize certain leaders, and will go to any lengths to obtain revenge for injury to them.”
“Nevertheless,” he said, hopefully, “this man Murphy seems a pretty good sort, rough as he is. He’ll do his best to protect us.”
“Yes,” declared Frank, “it seemed to me tonight that he was beginning to regret being a party to our captivity. He doesn’t want us to fall into the hands of the Chinamen. And he’s disgusted, too, with his employer. Maybe, we’ll get him on our side yet.”
“He’ll protect us from the Chinamen all right,” said Bob. “But when his boss, ‘Black George,’ recovers, he will be powerless. If this scoundrel is saving us in order to exact vengeance on us for the way we laid him out, we’ll be in a pretty fix.”
“Why, here is ‘Black George’ helpless, with only a fright-crazed little pudding of a doctor to help him. Let us take possession of ‘Black George’ and gain the whip hand over Murphy. Then we can compel Murphy to come over to our side, perhaps.”
“Why, we’ll buy our freedom with the freedom of Murphy’s master.”
“I don’t believe it can be done, Jack,” said Mr. Temple thoughtfully. “It isn’t only Murphy with whom we have to reckon, but these Chinamen, too. With them above all. ‘Black George’ probably doesn’t mean much to them. They would rather see him killed than see us escape their clutch. They probably feel that when we reach the smugglers’ cove they can compel ‘Black George’ to turn us over to their tender mercies, and that is the only reason they have been content to keep hands off so far.”
Jack was silent. The force of Mr. Temple’s reasoning was apparent to him.
“Well, then,” he said presently, “we’ll have to capture the ship in some way. That’s all. And, perhaps, we can persuade Murphy to give us weapons and help us overawe the Chinese crew.”
“Perhaps we can,” said Mr. Temple. “Meantime, let us all turn in and get some sleep. Tomorrow will be the day on which we must make whatever attempt we decide on. And we’ll need all our strength and alertness then. Frank, do you and Jack be sure to lock your cabin door again as you did last night, and we will do likewise. Let us each take a heavy chair into our rooms, too. In case of a night attack, we can at least pull the chair apart for clubs. And now, good night.”