book in the corner, he stretched out full length on the skins, which lay
in the irregular circle of light, and was soon fast asleep.

Just how long he slept he could not tell. When he awoke it was with a
feeling of great peril tugging at his heart. His first conscious thought
was that the aperture above him had, in some way, been darkened.
Instantly his eyes sought that opening. What he saw there caused his
heart to pause and his eyes to bulge.

Directly above him, seemingly poised for a drop, was a vicious looking
hook. With a keen point and a barb fully three inches across, with a
shaft of half-inch steel which was driven into a pole three inches in
diameter and of indefinite length, it could drive right through Johnny's
stomach, and pin him to the planks beneath. And, as his startled eyes
stared fixedly at it, the thing shot downward.




CHAPTER V

"FRIEND? ENEMY?"


Johnny Thompson, before he joined the army, had been considered one of
the speediest men of the boxing ring. His brain worked like lightning,
and every muscle in his body responded instantly to its call. Johnny had
not lost any of his speed. It was well that he had not, for, like a
spinning car-wheel, he rolled over twice before the hook buried itself
to the end of its barb in the pungent plank on which he had reclined an