"SOMEBODY overboard!" said the captain sharply.
"Who?" demanded Steve, in an equally sharp tone as his relief took the wheel from his hands.
"I don't know."
Just then the figure of a man was seen to leap from the top of the after deck-house into the raging sea.
Bob Jarvis had been clinging to a ladder that the chief engineer was holding up against the whistle pipe, the valve of the whistle having worked loose. The engineer had asked Bob to help him as a favor, which the lad was glad to do, though that was not his department. It was a ticklish position in which to work, and at any moment a lurch of the ship might throw the ladder over and throw the Iron Boy into the sea. He gave no heed to the danger of his position, for he was rapidly becoming a true sailor.
Suddenly, as though some instinct had told him to do so, Bob turned his head and glanced over the deck to the forward deck-house. As he did so he uttered an exclamation. Little Marie had just descended the steps from her father's quarters, and was already on the main deck. In her arms she carried several parcels.
"Go back!" roared Jarvis.
The words were driven back down his throat by the wind, and if the child understood his gestures she did not heed them.
Bob groaned.
"Let me down, quick! The child is trying to get aft and she'll never make it."