Only the most skillful manipulation by Rayne prevented it capsizing.
Nick gave him just time to get the boat on an even keel. Then he fell upon the rascal with both hands!
A rough and tumble in a motor boat is necessarily full of risk. It is always likely to end in a ducking for both combatants.
How Nick Carter and John Garrison Rayne escaped this unpleasantness is not to be explained. Only the fact can be stated.
Perhaps it was because Nick Carter was so dexterous in putting on the handcuffs when the Apache was not looking.
At all events, in less than two minutes, after a hard fight, John Garrison Rayne lay in the bottom of the dinky little craft, handcuffed, and with the detective sitting on him.
The boat was steered back to the ship, and the others came aboard.
“See if he has got the jewelry, Chick,” ordered Nick Carter. “I’ll hold him.”
“Get back there, Chick!” commanded Patsy, grinning. “I’m the boy that can frisk him.”
“Here’s two bags,” announced Chick, as he brought them forth from the rascal’s inside pockets.