The captain who was passing, stopped short and looked at Hubert Varrick in amazement as he cried out, wildly:
"Get me a life-boat, somebody—anybody! Half my fortune for a life-boat!"
"What is the matter?" asked the captain, sharply. "Has some one fallen overboard?"
When Varrick answered in the affirmative, the captain gave orders that a life-boat be at once lowered by the crew, calling upon Varrick to point out, as near as he could, where the drowning man was.
"I will go, too," Varrick answered, springing into the boat; and an instant later the boat was flying over the waves in the direction which Varrick indicated.
"Which way, sir?" asked the man at the oars.
"Straight toward that little island yonder," was the hoarse reply. "Make for it quickly! Here, take this bank-note, and, in Heaven's name, row sharp! No one is drowning, but there is a young and lovely girl at the mercy of some fiend on that island yonder!"
The man dropped his oars.
"If you had told our captain that, he would never have sent out a life-boat," declared the man. "He thought it was some one drowning near at hand, for the story of Wau-Winet Island is no news to the people hereabouts."