A coarse, brutal laugh came from the man's lips.
"Won't you believe me?" he demanded.
"Not unless you swear."
"Well, I won't, so that's the end of it."
At these words the woman gave a low moan, and what she said Douglas could not hear. Whatever it was it made the man angry and he again stamped his foot.
"What do I care?" he growled. "You can go to the snivelling old idiot and tell him all you want to."
"Oh, Ben!" and the woman laid a hand upon his arm, "how can you say such things?"
With a curse he flung her hand away, and then in a twinkling he gave her a push, and before she could recover herself she had gone backwards over the edge of the dock. With a frightened cry she disappeared, and the man, instead of trying to rescue her, leaped aside and vanished into the darkness.
All this happened so quickly that Douglas hardly realised what had taken place before it was all over. His first impulse was to spring after the man who had committed the cowardly deed. But the thought of the woman down there in the water deterred him and caused him to hasten at once to her assistance. Anxiously he peered over the edge, and at length saw a hand thrust above the surface. It took him but an instant to tear off his coat and hurl himself into the water below. A few powerful strokes brought him close to the woman, and he was enabled to reach out and clutch her with a firm grip ere she again disappeared. Fortunate it was for him that he was a strong swimmer, and he was thus able to hold the woman's head above water while he slowly worked his way toward the lower side of the dock, where he hoped to find a landing place. He had not proceeded far, however, ere a rowboat shot suddenly out from the shore, and a deep voice hailed him.
"Hold on a minute!" was the order. Soon the boat was near, and both
Douglas and the woman were hauled aboard.