"I'm coming!" Merriwell shouted, and his tones did not show exhausting fatigue.
Then he swam up to the raft, and Bart helped him to climb upon it.
"What was the matter with those scoundrels?"
"Deaf!"
"What?"
"Deaf as posts, both of them!" Merriwell explained, resting on the boards and panting from his exertions. "They didn't look this way simply because they didn't hear us. I'm sure of that, from the way they acted. I began to think so when I told you to hang to the raft. I believed that if I could overtake the sloop, and could climb aboard and make myself known, or knock them down, as my intention was, I could then release Inza and sail the sloop over here and get you. But I couldn't swim fast enough."
"You went through the water like a fish!"
"But the sloop went faster. If that breeze hadn't sprung up, I think I could have made it."
"And what are they doing with Inza?"
"I don't know. But I'm glad of one thing. She isn't dead."