"So he did try to rob us after all," he said. "The precious ruffian, I didn't like his looks from the start."
"Never mind about that now, Bill, but hustle and get some rope. We must tie him, for when he comes out of this he'll be a match for the two of us."
There were plenty of odd bits of rope lying about the cabin on lockers that ran down one side of it. Bill procured several lengths, and in a few moments, the semi-conscious giant was bound hand and foot.
In the meantime, Jack fastened the money belt round his waist once more.
"I wish we had pistols," he said, as they stood watching the slow return of consciousness to the bound captain's face.
"Why, this fellow is harmless now," rejoined Bill.
"Yes, but you have forgotten the rest of the crew, haven't you?"
"Great Scott, I had for a moment. Do you think they are in league with him?"
"I don't know, but they are bound to find out his plight sooner or later and we shall have to reckon with them. We're in a tight place, Bill."
Captain Hoeseason began to stir. He rolled his eyes uneasily, and the next moment discovered that he was tied fast.
"You young imps," he roared in stentorian tones, "cut me loose instantly, or when I do get free I'll have such a vengeance on you as will----"
"It won't do you any good to rave like that, captain," declared Jack, "and, moreover, we----"
The sentence was never finished. The fabric of the _Barley Rig_ seemed to heave suddenly upwards and then rush apart. There was a burst of blinding flame, and a report that drove the ear drums in. The next instant, as it seemed to them, there was an inrush of water on the tide of which the boys were swept out into the darkness of the raging seas.
The trawler vanished almost as quickly as the terrific flash of flame from the mine that she had struck, and which had ended her career for all time.
The moments that followed were the most terrible that Jack had ever known in his adventurous life at sea. Cast adrift in the dark night and wild sea, he was at first completely bewildered. The very suddenness with which the end of the _Barley Rig_ had come had benumbed him.
But ere long, the blind instinct of life asserted itself. He struck out, hoping to find some wreckage with which to sustain himself, for in that rolling, breaking sea, he could not have hoped to remain afloat long without some support.
