Those who could not reach a
point of vantage swung up on their companions' shoulders.
Everybody hooted and laughed. Presently there was a break in
the line, and four strapping sailors made their way through with
a burden which they laid none too gently on the deck. Another
and another, and still they came, until at the Captain's feet
there was a row of fourteen unconscious figures, wound and
strapped with rope until they resembled mummies. Captain Greene
bent closely above the figures. Two of them wore the uniform of
German officers; but one and all were unconscious, and tightly
roped.
"What does this mean?" demanded Captain Greene. He looked up
just as a stifled cry came from the Captain of the Firefly. On
the other side of him, Colonel Bright staggered and would have
fallen, had not a friendly hand steadied him. He as well as the
Captain of the Firefly were staring with bulging eyes at the
figure that was just emerging from the crowd at the rail. As
they stared, apparently unable to speak, another figure joined
the first.
Covered with dirt, unkempt, dressed in what seemed to be cast-off
fragments of all the uniforms under the sun, the two figures
stood looking around with broad grins, on their pale and smudgy
faces.
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