"But, señorita!--"
The hammer of the revolver began to rise under the pressure of Elsie's
finger on the trigger. The man's hair rose even more rapidly. His
nerve was broken. He turned along the corridor in front of her, not
knowing the instant a bullet might crash into his head. The girl
followed so closely that she almost touched his heels. The dog would
have trotted in front, but she recalled him.
When Suarez reached the port rail of the promenade deck, Elsie breathed: "Climb, quickly, and go down into the canoe by the rope ladder you will
find there."
"The canoe!" gasped he.
"Quick! One, two,--"
Up went Suarez over the rail. He found the top-most rungs of the
ladder. As he descended, the revolver followed his eyes. When his
head was level with the deck the order came: "Take the dog and go down."
"I cannot, señorita."
"You must try. You are going down, dead or alive."
He did try. Joey scuffled a little, but Suarez caught him by the neck,
and made shift to descend. Elsie was already on the swaying ladder
when Boyle's voice rang out sharply from the spar-deck: "Below there! Who is there?"
"I, Mr. Boyle," she answered.
"You, Miss Elsie? Where are you?"
"Here; not so far away."
She was descending all the time. She had cast loose the rope which
fastened the canoe alongside, and her difficulty was to hold the ladder
and at the same time, by clinging to the mast, to prevent the canoe
from slipping away with the tide. The revolver she gripped between her
teeth by the butt.
Boyle, puzzled by the sound of her voice, ran from the side of the
bridge down the stairs and across the deck. He was a second too late
to grasp the top of the mast as it drifted out of reach. He heard
Elsie utter a low-voiced command in Spanish, and the dip of a paddle
told him that the canoe was in motion.
"For the Lord's sake, what are you doing?" he roared.
"I am going to save Captain Courtenay," was the answer. "You cannot
stop me now. Please hoist plenty of lights. If I succeed, look out
for me before daybreak. If I fail, good-by!"