If they could have looked through the reeds and bushes to the other side of the island they would have known that Chap was coming!
The moment that the foremost boat turned the point of reeds, Chap’s frenzy doubled.
“Wake up!” he screamed. “Are you going to sleep, and have me left? Ten more pulls, and we’ve got her! Give way now! Give way! Tear at it, I tell you! Tear at it!”
They had now reached the reeds, but Chap had no intention of going around them. They were growing in the water, and the water would certainly float his boat.
“Pull around, you Bill,” he cried. “Smash right through them! Drive her through, boys! Drive her through!”
The tall reeds bent beneath the sudden dash of the boat and the wild sweep of the oars; and in a few seconds Chap’s little craft was out in the open water beyond.
Just ahead of her, and not twenty feet away, was the countess’s boat. Chap’s men were rowing as madly as ever, and in a few strokes they would be upon it.
“Stop!” yelled Chap. “Back water!”
But these words had no effect on his two negroes. He had been shouting and yelling to them ever since they started, and they did not now notice what he said. They were so filled with savage excitement that they paid no attention to mere words.
The men in the other boat tried to pull out of the way, but they were not quick enough. Chap’s boat crashed into that of the countess, smashing in one side, and nearly turning it over with the violence of the shock.