"Prepare to board! Board!" shouted Hal, and was first to leap to the deck of the stranger, a craft some seventy feet in length and rather broad of beam. His soldiers followed him. All the young officers went over the side, and Lieutenant Noll led the reserves from the cabin of the "Restless." Right on the heels of the soldiers followed Skipper Tom and Engineer Joe, to lash the two craft fast. "Who commands here?" demanded Lieutenant Overton. There was no answer. "Where's the gentleman with the fog-horn voice who appeared to have so much to say?" Hal questioned sharply. None of the crew of the boarded vessel spoke. Nor was any further effort at resistance made. On the deck Lieutenant Overton found one Mexican dead, and another badly wounded. Near each lay a rifle. Another Mexican seemingly unarmed, stood by the wheel, looking on with a sickly grin, but saying nothing. Down in the engine-room huddled two other Mexicans. "Sergeant, search the man at the wheel, and then the pair down in the engine-room," Hal ordered. "If you find weapons on them, make the men your prisoners." Followed by Noll and a few enlisted men, the Army boy made his way aft to the entrance to the main cabin. Hal tried the door, but it resisted his efforts. "Open this door," he called, "and save us the trouble of breaking it in." "Don't dare break it in," remonstrated the hoarse voice. "If you do it will fall across the body of the woman you've probably already killed by your bullets." Hal felt another chill run down his spine, but he answered firmly: "If there's a wounded woman in there we'll do our best to rush her toward surgical help. But you'll have to open that door, or we'll do it for you!" "Then you'd better stand away, boy!" warned the hoarse voice grimly. "If you try to force your way in here you'll eat more bullets than you'll like." "Just what we're after," retorted Lieutenant Overton grimly. "We want to lay our hands on the men who fired on United States troops, and I know they must be in there, for they're nowhere else on the boat. Your deck holds only two out of all who fired. Going to open?" "_No_, you young hound!" "Put your shoulders to the door, men!" continued Hal, turning to the nearest soldiers. "I'll shoot the first man who comes through!" defied the voice behind the door, hoarser than ever. "And I'll shoot as many more as I can!" "Some of you men on the sides of the deck-house push your rifles through the cabin windows and be prepared to shoot if you have to," ordered Hal coolly. There was a crashing of glass as the rifle muzzles were thrust in through the cabin windows. Again the woman's shriek rang out. "If you have to fire," continued Lieutenant Overton, "take all possible care not to hit the woman." Bump! Bump! Even the sturdy cabin door was beginning to yield under the repeated impacts of so many pairs of shoulders. At last the door swung back on its hinges.