He turned and got his balance on the narrow ledge, pointed his hands high above his head, and took a good breath.  Then he dove toward the floating face.  When he came to the surface she was there, not ten strokes away.  He swam to her, placed firm hands under her arms, and steadied her while she cleared her feet from the entangling rope.

“Thank God!” he breathed.  “I’ll save you yet!”

CHAPTER VIII

ON THE BREAST OF THE SEA

“Can you keep afloat in this roughness?”

“I think so, now that I have the life preserver.  But the rope scared me for a minute.  It got wound about my feet.”

“I thought so.  But we are drifting away from the boats, and should swim back as fast as we can.  Can you swim?”

“Yes; better when I get rid of this cloak.  Which way is the yacht?  I’ve lost my bearings.”

“Behind us over there.  Put your hand on my shoulder and I’ll take you along until you get your breath.  So!”

The girl obeyed implicitly, “as if she were a good, biddable child,” thought Jim.  There was none of the terrified clutching at a rescuer which sometimes causes disaster to two instead of one.  Miss Redmond was badly shocked, it may be; but she was far from being in a panic.

“Now for the boat.  Can you swim a little faster?  They’ll surely come back to pick us up,” said Jim, with an assumption of confidence that he did not feel.  They could hear voices from the yacht, and could follow, partially, what was going on.  Miss Redmond cast loose her cloak, put a hand on Jim’s shoulder, and together they swam nearer.  “Ahoy!” shouted Jim.  “Give us a hand!” But the boat with the large woman in it had put about to the other side of the yacht.  “Ahoy!  This way!” shouted Jim.  “Throw us a rope!” he cried; but if any of the seamen of the Jeanne D’Arc heard, they paid no heed.

“Come this way,” said James to his companion.  “We’ll catch them on the other side of the yacht.”

“I can’t swim much in all these clothes,” said Agatha.

“Never mind, then.  Hold on to the life preserver and to me, and we’ll make it all right.”  On the crests of the swelling waves they swam round the dark bulk of the vessel, and heard plainly the clamor of the men as they embarked in the small boats.  Two of them seemed to be fastened together, raft-like, on the starboard side of the yacht, and were quickly filled with men.  Prayers and curses were audible, with the loose, wild inflexion of the man who is in the clutch of an overmastering fear.  As long as there had been work for them to do on the ship, they had done it, though sullenly; they had even controlled themselves until the attempt was made to place the two women in safety.  But after that their self-restraint vanished.  The orders of the officers were unheeded; the men leaped and scrambled and slid into the boats, and in a minute more they had cut loose from the Jeanne D’Arc.