A moment later he flung himself in over the stern, the dripping boys took an oar each, and they headed through the slow swells of breaking surf for the launch.
CHAPTER IX
HAMMER BEGINS TO SEE
Not until reaching the launch did Jenson, who was almost beside himself with terror, seem to realize that Dr. Krausz had been powerless to save him from Hammer.
As Baumgardner tried to put him over the side he broke away, and flung himself face downward across the fore thwarts of the boat with whimpering, inarticulate cries.
The American caught Baumgardner's helpless gaze and ordered Mohammed to hold the two craft together while he attended to Jenson.
At this juncture, however, Sara Helmuth developed resources of her own. Motioning to Hammer to hold on, she calmly took a revolver from his coat-pocket, rose, and went forward.
"Get into the launch, Baumgardner," she said coldly, and the man obeyed. Jenson looked up at her, then fell to grovelling at her feet.
"Don't shoot!" he shrieked, a mad agony of fear in his voice. "I'll tell it all, fräulein—it was I who told the Herr Doctor about the——"
"Be silent!" she said scornfully, and his whimperings died away. "Get into that launch unless you want to be thrown in."