“For Heaven’s sake, where are you, Roger? Answer, man, if you are alive.” The voice was Harry’s.
“Harry,” groaned Roger, “here I am; help me quickly or you will be too late; the ship sinks fast!”
Guided by the voice, Harry soon made his appearance.
“Roger, man,” he cried, “thank God I have found you! I thought you were gone for ever. Can you help yourself at all, lad?”
“A little, I think, if you will put your arm round me,” replied Roger.
Harry flung his arm under Roger’s arm-pits and raised him to his feet.
“One moment, Harry,” cried Roger, pointing to the papers which Alvarez had left on the floor, and which were now floating about the cabin; “secure these papers; I believe they are of value.”
Harry seized the documents with his free hand, and, supporting Roger, staggered with him to the foot of the companion-ladder. How they eventually got up into the free air the two never clearly knew, for they were deep down in the body of the ship, and had two or three ladders to climb ere they arrived on the upper deck. But reach it they did, after what seemed an eternity of suspense. Then, as they stepped out once more into the blessed free air of heaven, the whole of the Atlantic seemed suddenly to sweep over the ship; they felt her slide from beneath their feet; and they were drawn down, down, down, until it appeared as though they would never again see the light. But at last, with lungs bursting and almost suffocated, they shot up to the heaving surface of the sea, clinging tightly to each other.
And there—oh, blessed sight!—not twenty fathoms away, lay their own ship, dismasted and looking an utter wreck, but more beautiful to their eyes than any palace.
From her decks there came a shout: “There they are! there they are! Lower away a boat! lower quickly, or the sharks will have them!”