"I'll look after him!—We are only half a cable from the shore!"
"But you?"
"My duty compels me to remain here to the last, and I remain!" said the captain. "But get off! get off!"
Godfrey still hesitated to cast himself into the waves, but the water was already up to the level of the deck.
Captain Turcott knowing that Godfrey swam like a fish, seized him by the shoulders, and did him the service of throwing him overboard.
It was time! Had it not been for the darkness, there would doubtless have been seen a deep raging vortex in the place once occupied by the Dream.
But Godfrey, in a few strokes in the calm water, was able to get swiftly clear of the whirlpool, which would have dragged him down like the maelstrom.
All this was the work of a minute.
A few minutes afterwards, amid shouts of despair, the lights on board went out one after the other.
Doubt existed no more; the Dream had sunk head downwards!