which went whistling past. One hand closed on George's wrist, the
other on the revolver. Yellow Handkerchief and his gang sprang
toward me. It was now or never. Putting all my strength into a
sudden effort, I swung George's body forward to meet them. Then I
pulled back with equal suddenness, ripping the revolver out of his
fingers and jerking him off his feet. He fell against Yellow
Handkerchief's knees, who stumbled over him, and the pair wallowed
in the bailing hole where the cockpit floor was torn open. The
next instant I was covering them with my revolver, and the wild
shrimp-catchers were cowering and cringing away.

But I swiftly discovered that there was all the difference in the
world between shooting men who are attacking and men who are doing
nothing more than simply refusing to obey. For obey they would not
when I ordered them into the bailing hole. I threatened them with
the revolver, but they sat stolidly in the flooded cabin and on the
roof and would not move.

Fifteen minutes passed, the Reindeer sinking deeper and deeper, her
mainsail flapping in the calm. But from off the Point Pedro shore
I saw a dark line form on the water and travel toward us. It was
the steady breeze I had been expecting so long. I called to the
Chinese and pointed it out. They hailed it with exclamations.
Then I pointed to the sail and to the water in the Reindeer, and
indicated by signs that when the wind reached the sail, what of the
water aboard we would capsize. But they jeered defiantly, for they
knew it was in my power to luff the helm and let go the main-sheet,
so as to spill the wind and escape damage.

But my mind was made up. I hauled in the main-sheet a foot or two,