But Page either did not hear or did not heed. His arms clung more desperately around Dave, binding one of the latter's arms to his body.
"He'll drown both of us!" was the thought that flashed instantly through Midshipman Darrin's mind.
There was no time to think of more. Before he realized that the thing was happening Darrin felt the waters close over his head.
Both midshipmen were going down. While Darrin's mind was fully alive to the situation Page, a gallant fellow at heart, and thoroughly brave, was now unwittingly carrying his comrade down with him to death.
Nor, in the first moments, did any of the other midshipmen note the tragic happening.
It was not long, however, before Dan Dalzell's agonized query shot over the waters:
"Where's grand old Darrin?"
Dan groaned with his helplessness. For Dan was, at that instant, holding up one of the poor swimmers, to leave whom would be to abandon him to death.