"Can you jump to it from the rail? It is either that, or the water. Are you afraid to try?"
"Afraid—no. Hold me; yes; that way, but—but what are you going to do?"
"Follow, of course; but I shall take to the water. There are no oars here. Nothing to use as a substitute for them. I'll have to swim, and push that old ark as far away as possible. When the yacht goes down, the suction is liable to swamp us, if we are close in."
"But I can swim, Captain West."
"I am glad to know that; but now you do just as I say. There is no necessity for both of us getting wet through. Are you ready?"
She poised herself, held steady by the grip of his hands, her eyes on the dark outline of the floating raft. There was no hesitancy, no questioning.
"Say when," he said sharply.
"Now."
She sprang outward, and came down, sinking to her knees, and clinging fast, as the raft bobbed up and down under her sudden weight, dipping until the water rolled completely over it.