As I spoke Kidd let go the tiller, and quick as lightning gave me a tremendous blow with his fist between the shoulders, which just missed throwing me head foremost down the cabin-hatch, and sent me face downward on the deck breathless and half stunned.

Before I could even think of rising, Kidd, who, as he struck, shouted to Yawl to "kill the Indian," was kneeling on my back with his fingers round my windpipe.
"At last! I have you now, you conceited jackanapes, you d----d sea-lawyer.
Where have you got them diamonds?
You won't answer! Shall I throttle you, or brain you with this belaying-pin?
I'll throttle you; then there'll be none of your dirty blood to swab up." With that the villain squeezed my windpipe still tighter, and quite unable either to struggle or speak, I was giving myself up for lost, when his hold suddenly relaxed, and groaning deeply, he sank beside me on the deck.
Freed from his weight, I staggered to my feet to find that I owed my life to Angela, who had used her dagger to such purpose that Kidd was like never to speak again.
"Ramon! Ramon! Haste, or that man will kill him," she cried, all in a tremble, and pale with horror at the thought of her own boldness.
Yawl's onslaught was so sudden that the boy had been unable to draw his _machete_, and after a desperate bout of tugging and straining, the sailor had got the upper-hand and was now kneeling on Ramon's chest, and feeling for his knife.

Though sorely bruised with my fall, and still gasping for breath, I ran to the rescue, and gripping Yawl by the shoulders, bore him backward on the deck.

Another moment, and we had him at our mercy; I held down his head, while Ramon, astride on his body, pinioned his arms.
"Now, look here, Yawl!" I said.

"You have tried to commit murder and deserve to die; your comrade and accomplice is dead, but I will spare your life on conditions.