"Help! Help!" called the sufferer, in faint and fearful tones, as we came nearer to her.
"Hold on a few moments longer," I replied.
"I can't!" she answered, evidently chilled by the cold, and exhausted by her fruitless struggles.
"Only a moment," I added.
That moment was a fearfully long one, and at the end of it came failure. The raft disappointed me. The current was bearing the helpless female by it, but not more than fifty feet distant. It might as well have been a mile, so far as our capacity to overcome the space between us was concerned.
"Down with the sail, Sim!" I shouted, sharply.
"Hookie!" gasped Sim, still standing with his mouth wide open, gazing at the poor woman.
"Down with it!" I repeated, giving him a kick to sharpen his wits.
He stumbled to the sail; but his fingers were all thumbs, and he could not untie the halyard. I was obliged to do it myself, for the sail had filled aback, and it was retarding the progress of the raft.
"Help! Save me!" cried the unhappy person again, but fainter than before, as hope appeared to desert her.