The noise above them was increasing.

He flung the limp form over his shoulder and began desperately to claw his way up a steep slant towards the saloon-door and the companion-way.

Sound and instinct guided him, for the darkness was complete.

But he was not the man to die like a trapped animal while the most slender way of escape remained.

Hampered as he was, he made for the open with set teeth and terrible foreign oaths of which he was utterly unconscious.
Whether that fierce struggle for freedom could ever have ended in success single-handed, however, was a point which he was not destined to decide, for after a space of desperate effort which no time could measure, there suddenly shone the gleam of an electric torch in front of him, and he saw the opening but a few feet away.
"Saltash!" cried a voice, piercing the outer din, "Saltash!" "Here!" yelled back Saltash, still fighting for foothold and finding it against the leg of the table, "That you, Larpent?
How long have we got ?" "Seconds only!" said Larpent briefly.