Conny Degger had missed the Fenique's rail, but he had gripped the bight of a rope trailing overboard. He was being towed in the sea; dragged through the bursting waves rather than over them. His precarious situation was not to be derided.
A curling sea toppled over their heads and fell, a smashing weight, upon the Fenique. The motor-boat staggered under the impact of the blow. The cockpit was awash as Ralph stumbled down into it with Lorna in his arms.
The girl struggled out of his grasp. She seized the rail, gripping it with both hands.
"Conny! Save him!" she shrieked.
At this juncture her anxiety for Degger seemed to mark a deeper interest than Ralph had suspected she felt for the man.
But Ralph had first their ultimate safety to think of. He leaped for the wheel and relieved the strain under which the Fenique labored. He payed off carefully until the motor-boat began to ride the billows more buoyantly.
When he stoppered the wheel again and turned to aid Degger, Lorna was creeping aft with the evident intent of laying hold of the rope to which the man clung. But she did not possess the strength to drag him inboard.
Ralph set her aside with a fending arm and seized the rope. With a long haul and a heave, he brought the gasping Degger under the rail of the motor-boat.
As the craft rolled, Ralph leaned over the rail and seized the half drowned Degger just as the latter's grip slipped from the rope. While the rail dipped to the running sea the rescuer heaved him in-board.
Then Ralph leaped back to the wheel and righted the motor-boat again. When she was once more headed right, flying ahead of the blast, he glanced over his shoulder. Lorna was on her knees in the bottom of the boat with Conny Degger's head in her lap. The tableau was somewhat startling.