Then the liner burned another light. Tom answered with one held in his own hand. It was the signal to look for the line, and the answer.
Through the darkness came a sudden, red flash from the after deck of the liner. The wind was so heavy that those on the bridge deck of the “Restless” could not be sure that they heard the report of the gun. But a missile whizzed over their heads, and to this blessed projectile trailed a thin line that fell across the top of the cabin deck.
Tom and Hank made a simultaneous bolt to get hold of that line. It was young Butts who 224 secured it. He passed it on to the young captain, and, together, they leaped to the bridge-deck with it. From there they crawled forward over the raised deck, slipping the line, at last, between the two raised ends of the towing bitt.
“Now, haul in with a will,” glowed the young skipper, as they crept back to the bridge-deck. A great wave swept over them on their way back. Tom saw it coming, and braced himself. Hank was caught by the rush of waters; he would have been swept overboard, but Halstead grabbed at one of his ankles, holding on grimly.
At that moment the late prisoner, Jasper, saw what was happening. Projecting himself forward over the raised deck, he, too, caught hold of Hank Butts, while Powell Seaton held to Jasper.
It was a sort of human chain by which Hank was pulled to safety. Tom, throughout the excitement, held the “thin line” in one hand.
“Haul in this thin line, quickly,” shouted the young commander, who could barely make himself heard above the tumult of the gale.
As the line was some four hundred feet long, it used up precious moments to haul it and coil up the slack. As the last of the “thin line” came into their hands there came with it the 225 first of a stouter hawser, the two lines being knotted securely together.
“Hold on to me, now! Form a chain again,” ordered Skipper Tom. “I’ll make the hawser fast forward.”
All this while the Havana liner, some four hundred feet away, was going through a complicated bit of manœuvering under the hands of her officers. Alternately she moved at half-speed-ahead, at stop, or on the reverse, in order that, despite the high-rolling waves, she might not go too far ahead and snap the thin line. But now young Halstead soon had a stout hitch about the towing bitt at the bow. A few more turns, then he signaled to those behind holding him to help him back to the bridge deck. A dozen great waves had rolled over him on that smooth raised deck, but the members of the human chain hauled him back to safety.