Method and Foresight

"You will be good enough to buckle on that belt," returned Golden
Beard, staring at her.

Slowly she bent over, picked up the life-belt, and, looping the silk
rope over her arm, began to put on the belt. Golden Beard, impatient,
presently came to her assistance; then he unhooked from the wall a
cloak and threw it over her shoulders.

"Now, Karl!" he said. "Shoot him dead if he stirs!" And he snatched a
sheet from the bed, tore it into strips, walked over to Neeland, and
deftly tied him hand and foot and gagged him.

Then Golden Beard and Ali Baba, between them, lifted the young man and
seated him on the iron bed and tied him fast to it.

"Go out on deck!" said Golden Beard to Ilse Dumont.

"Let me stay----"

"No! You have acted like a fool. Go to the lower deck where is our
accustomed rendezvous."

"I wish to remain, Johann. I shall not interfere----"

"Go to the lower deck, I tell you, and be ready to tie that rope
ladder!"

Ali Baba, down on his knees, had pulled out a steamer trunk from under
the bed, opened it, and was lifting out three big steel cylinders.

These he laid on the bed in a row beside the tied man; and Golden
Beard, still facing Ilse Dumont, turned his head to look.

The instant his head was turned the girl snatched a pistol from the
brace of weapons on the washstand and thrust it under her cloak.
Neither Golden Beard nor Ali Baba noticed the incident; the latter was
busy connecting the three cylinders with coils of wire; the former,
deeply interested, followed the operation for a moment or two, then
walking over to the trunk, he lifted from it a curious little clock
with two dials and set it on the railed shelf of glass above the
washstand.