The whole affair, as far as it concerned Cleggett, had been a matter of seconds rather than minutes; it was begun and over like a hundred yard dash on the cinder track.

When George and Kuroki and Cap'n Abernethy had tumbled into the hold they had been afraid to shoot for fear of hitting Cleggett; they had reached him, guided by his voice, just as he went down under his assailant's pistol.

They had not subdued the youth until he had suffered severely from George's dagger.

Later they learned that one of Cleggett's bullets had also found him.

Cleggett listened to the end, and then he said: "But there WERE two men in the hold.