“Put your hand on my shoulder.  The boat is not a length away.”

A minute later Frank was beside Bertha again.

“Where have you been, Frank?  I was frightened.”

“One of the men grasped me,” he said, “and I should have turned the boat over if I had not let go.  However, thanks to George Lechmere, who came to my rescue, I have shaken him off.

“Ah! here is help.”

Three or four boats from the yachts were indeed rowing up.  The four clinging to the gig were taken on board by one of them, while the others picked up the men who were floating supported by their oars.

“Don’t say a word about it, George,” Frank whispered.

The Osprey was lying but two or three hundred yards away, and they were soon alongside.

“This is not the sort of welcome I thought to give you on board, dear,” he said, as he helped Bertha on deck, and went down the companion with her.

Anna burst into exclamations of dismay at seeing the dripping figures.

“We have had an accident, Anna,” Frank said, cheerfully, “but I don’t think that we are any the worse for it.  Please take your mistress aft and get her into dry things at once.

“Steward, open one of those bottles of champagne, and give me half a tumbler full.”

He hurried after the others with it.

“Please drink this at once, Bertha,” he said.  “Yes, you shall have some tea directly, but start with this.  It will soon put you in a glow.  Oh! yes, I am going to have one, too; but a ducking is no odds to me.”

Then he ran up on deck.

“You have saved my life again, George, for that scoundrel would have drowned us both.”

“I saw the knife in his hand as you went down, and knew that you wanted me more than Miss—­I mean Mrs. Mallett did.”

“How did you make him let go so quickly?”

“I had a sort of fear that, sooner or later, that villain would be up to something; and had made up my mind that I would always have a weapon handy.  This morning I stuck that dagger of mine inside the lining of my waistcoat, so that it might be handy.  And it was handy.  You were not five yards from me when you went down, and I dived for you, but could not find you at first, and had to come up once for air.  Of course, I could not use the dagger until I found which was which, and then I put an end to it.”

“Then you killed him, George?”

“I don’t think that he will trouble you any more, sir; and if ever a chap deserved his fate that villain did.  Why, sir, do you know how it all happened?”

“No, I did not catch what the man at the bow said.  There was such a confusion forward.”

“He said that he had staved the boat in somehow.  He must have taken the place of one of the men on purpose to do it.”

“Well, George, I can’t say that I’m sorry.”

“I am heartily glad, sir.  I am no more sorry for killing him than for shooting one of those murderous niggers.  Less sorry, a great deal.  The man deserved hanging.  He was intending to murder you, and perhaps Mrs. Mallett, and I killed him as I should have killed a mad dog that was attacking you.”