As the sailors rushed again, that living club smashed against them and flung them back.

Even to the herculean strength of McTee it was a prodigious feat, but the danger gave him for the moment the power of a madman.

Twice he swung the shrieking little sailor, and twice that body smashed back the attack, while Harrigan leaped to his feet in time to knock down a man who sprang at McTee from behind with a brandished knife.
All this had occurred in the space of half a dozen seconds; the first rush of the mutineers was spent; before they could lunge forward again, McTee flung the half-lifeless body of his human weapon into the midst of the crowd and, turning with Harrigan at his shoulder, they sprang up the ladder to the main cabin door.
Hovey was screaming commands over the din; the crowd rushed after the fugitives.
Harrigan shouted at McTee: "Get Kate! Take her aft to the wireless house! I'll hold 'em here a minute and then join you!" McTee nodded and tore down the deck toward Kate's cabin, while Harrigan pulled the knife of Kamasura from his trousers and thrust it in the face of the first man up the ladder.

The blade slashed him from nose to cheekbone, and he toppled back with a yell, bearing with him in the fall the two men immediately below.

Harrigan glanced across to the other ladder on the farther side of the deck, and saw Kate and McTee running aft.