Page:Ritchie - Trails to Two Moons.djvu/283

 the door warned that it was free to swing inward. More Original dared not attempt; with the door on the jar he could get out on necessity.

Still the chorus of the sleepers carried its leitmotif thunderously.

When he had crawled in the upper window and painfully descended the ladder Original was still lacking any definite plan for the capture of the sleepers. That there should be two instead of the one he wanted was an embarrassment unlooked for. Had he only to reckon with Whistler he would have gone to the man's bunk, thrown himself on the sleeper and throttled him before he could make an outcry. But with two men, on opposite sides of the room this course would invite disaster. The sound of a struggle would bring the second man on his back. True, he might have risked opening the door and summoning his two aides in to help him, but a stiff pride denied this; Original desired to play a lone hand and bring out his man without assistance.

He bethought himself of the card game that had been in progress before Zang's companions departed. That would mean a lamp on the table. With infinite caution he groped until