Tip Top Library: Frank Merriwell in the South Seas — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

FRANK MERRIWELL IN THE SOUTH SEAS. of the stokers went up to. look after the Chinese whom Frank had bound hastily. When it was ascertained that no other whites or Chinese were below, Mr. Mur- ray resumed his explanation: ‘‘I knew I should be too late for any use if I should come down by the engi- neers’ way, and there was just a chance that I could surprise the scoundrels by coming through the stoke hole. ‘‘One of the bo’s’ns was having a.scrap with a Chink at the deck entrance, but I} didn’t wait to see just how it came out. When I left it looked bad for the Chink. ‘*Perhaps you don’t know, Frank, that there are narrow, dark passages between the boilers that connect the engine room with the stoke hole. 7 ‘*It’s a fact, and there’s the one I came through. ‘The Chinks understood that, and this fellow that I had to shoot was on guard in it. He had terrorized the stokers, who, being unarmed and taken by surprise, could only stand still when he leveled his pistols at them. “His two companions had been left to guard the engineers’ stairway. ‘‘Now, he undoubtedly heard the racket caused by the Chink who was tumbling down the stairs, for I heard something of it myself. _ fe must have come back here to learn what was going on. Anyhow, he wasn’t in the passage when I got to the bottom, and the stokers were just going to go through it and risk a fight on their own account. ‘fAs I had a revolver I thought I'd bet- ter go first, and that’s all there is to that. ‘Tt: ‘remains to be found just how the general attack was managed.” They were not long in learning this after they were on deck again. . The Chinese were not the shipwrecked mariners they pretended to be, but the most daring members of a desperate crew of pirates. There are fewer pirates now in the Western Pacific and the Asiatic seas than there used to be, but there are stil] enough of them to be a serious danger to sailing vessels. Usually a steamer is safe from their at- tacks. In this instance the pirates counted upon the boldness of their plan and the care with which it was carried out. All they wanted was to be taken on board. They knew then just what to do. Captain Dunbar was not so _ hard hearted as he had seemed to the generous passengers. He suspected treachery of some kind, and therefore took the pre- caution to have the watch of officers and men increased. As it happened, this both helped and hindered the murderous Chinese. In the first place, it took more men from the fo’c’sle than ordinarily would have been there. The Chinese planned to slaughter or disable every sailor and stoker in the fo’c’sle Before midnight, and then to come on deck at the change of watch, disguised in the sailors’ clothes, capture or kill the officers, and so continue their terrible scheme to the end of murdering every body on board. 21. By the captain’s increasing the watch they had fewer men to overcome before midnight, but for the same reason they - had more to contend against on the open decks. Even at that their plan might have suc- ceeded but for Frank, for his action un- doubtedly saved the lives of the captain and first officer. With them disposed of, the Chinese would have had comparatively easy sail-. ing. After the murderous’ work in the fo’c’sle, earlier in the evening, a few of the Chinese, dressed in the dead sailors’ garments, had slipped out on deck unob- served and unsuspected in the darkness, and secreted themselves so that the mur- COLT ElOO® (CO