Flemming and Roche ran for'ard, each with a boat-hook. They might as well have tried to stop an armoured car with a broomstick. Rayburn promptly put the helm hard over, but the scope of chain to which the Olivette was riding was not sufficient to enable her to sheer out of the course of the derelict barge.
The next moment the impact came. It was a severe shock, although the Olivette gave to the momentum of the barge. Round swung the latter under the irresistible strength of the tide, although her side was still grinding against the Olivette's stem.
"Look to the dinghy!" shouted Roche, still pushing with the boat-hook with all his strength.
Flemming realized the danger. Dropping his boat-hook, he raced aft, dropped into the dinghy, and began to cast off the painter.
[Illustration: THE DERELICT (missing from book)]
The rope—a new one—had swollen with the night dew. Before Eric could untie the stubborn clove-hitch, the barge, still swinging round, crashed heavily against the frail dinghy.
Nipped between the sides of the two larger craft, the dinghy was literally split asunder. Flemming barely contrived to jump upon the deck of the low-lying barge. A second or so later and he would have shared the fate of the dinghy.
Baffled by the darkness and by the fact that he was on a strange craft, Flemming attempted to run for'ard and regain the Olivette. Stumbling over a ring-bolt, he fell awkwardly upon the barge's waterways, and by the time he recovered himself the two craft had drifted apart.
He was marooned upon a derelict at the mercy of the swiftly running Seine.