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They won't stand the gaff, sir," he returned.

Can you suggest a better plan?" I asked.

No, sir," he replied.

Then give them the gaff, lieutenant," I shouted back, and hung up the receiver.

For twenty minutes the Coldwater bucked the great seas with her three engines.

I doubt if she advanced a foot; but it was enough to keep her nose in the wind,

and, at least, we were not drifting toward thirty.

Johnson and Alvarez were at my side when, without warning, the bow swung

swiftly around and the ship fell into the trough of the sea.

"The other three have gone," I said, and I happened to be looking at Johnson as I

spoke. Was it the shadow of a satisfied smile that crossed his thin lips? I do not

know; but at least he did not weep.

"You always have been curious, sir, about the great unknown beyond thirty," he

said. "You are in a good way to have your curiosity satisfied." And then I could

not mistake the slight sneer that curved his upper lip. There must have been a

trace of disrespect in his tone or manner which escaped me, for Alvarez turned

upon him like a flash.

When Lieutenant Turck crosses thirty," he said, "we shall all cross with him, and

God help the officer or the man who reproaches him!"

I shall not be a party to high treason," snapped Johnson. "The regulations are

explicit, and if the Coldwater crosses thirty it devolves upon you to place

Lieutenant Turck under arrest and immediately exert every endeavor to bring the

ship back into Pan-American waters."

"I shall not know," replied Alvarez, "that the Coldwater passes thirty; nor shall

any other man aboard know it," and, with his words, he drew a revolver from his

pocket, and before either I or Johnson could prevent it had put a bullet into every

instrument upon the bridge, ruining them beyond repair.

And then he saluted me, and strode from the bridge, a martyr to loyalty and

friendship, for, though no man might know that Lieutenant Jefferson Turck had

taken his ship across thirty, every man aboard would know that the first officer

had committed a crime that was punishable by both degradation and death.

Johnson turned and eyed me narrowly.

Shall I place him under arrest?" he asked.

The Lost Continent