“And I think not!” The words sounded as from some other throat than my own. “Sink that schooner with all the men in her, and——”
“And what?” I could feel his breath hot with wrath as he brought his face pugnaciously close to mine.
“The girl!” I cried.
“What do you know about her?”
“Enough to know that I’ll not——”
I don’t remember the end of that sentence; for he suddenly whirled his broad back upon me, and, fending my interference off thus, reached over into the speed boat’s cockpit and threw back the starting lever.
But the steering wheel was aft, a side steerer attached to the coaming—the port coaming at that, and right to my hand.
I grabbed that wheel, and flung it around desperately, in the second I had before the hydroplane shot from us.
She didn’t veer far from her course of intended destruction; but it was enough, and I had the inner glow of satisfaction for the one instant that was allowed me before I met him as he turned and gripped me in deadly embrace.
In an iron clutch I felt myself borne bodily aloft. I struck the water breathless, and I cannot swim.