IN POSSESSION Masters must have struck me at almost the same instant my fist landed on Henley, for we went down together, his revolver discharging, the flying bullet gouging my shoulder, burning the flesh like a red-hot wire.

Yet I grappled him even as we crashed to the deck, but the fellow lay stunned, motionless as a dead man.

Everything happened quicker than I can tell it; with such rapidity, indeed, that not a hand touched me.

I could barely struggle up on one knee, dazed still by the stroke which had floored me, and glance about, when the blue-jackets came tumbling over the rail, and leaped at the astounded crew of the _Sea Gull_.

It was a swift, short fight, the assailants having every advantage.