Part 36 (2/2)
”Here; not so far away”
She was descending all the tiside, and her difficulty was to hold the ladder and at the sa to theaith the tide The revolver she gripped between her teeth by the butt
Boyle, puzzled by the sound of her voice, ran froe 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 ?” he roared
”I a to save Captain Courtenay,” was the answer ”You cannot stop hts If I succeed, look out for ood-by!”
CHAPTER XVIII
A FULL NIGHT
Boyle was very angry It was a situation which de Elsie understood them to mean that she need not be in such a purple hurry to disappear into the darkness without the least explanation; thereupon she bade Suarez back the canoe a little
”I am sorry it is necessary to steal away in this fashi+on,” she said, and the coolness of her tone was highly exasperating to a man who could no more detain her than he could move the _Kansas_ unaided ”I have a plan which requires only a bit of good fortune to render it practicable I have two assistants--Suarez, whose aid I aer There is no use in risking any more lives If I do not return you may be sure the worst has happened”
”But what is your plan?” roared Boyle ”It may be just sheer nonsense
Tell me what it is, and I swear by the Nautical Al it out if it has any reason behind it”
”I a answer
”I know it can be done, from what Suarez has said Once we have the canoes inCaptain Courtenay and the others back to the shi+p in four or five which ill tow to Guanaco Hill And now, good-by again!”
”One moment, Miss Maxwell,” broke in Gray's quiet voice froineer that sche with you You must take me aboard, wet or dry”
”I am well armed, and shall admit of no interference,” she cried
”I promise to obey orders”
”If I wanted you, Mr Gray, I should have sought your help”
”It is one thing or the other--a wriggle down a rope or a high diving act”
”You have no right to impose such an alternative on me”
”I hate it myself, and I can't dive worth a cent You will hear a beastly flop when I strike the damp”
”Mr Boyle--I call on you to hold hi a balancing act on the rail eight feet above his head Elsie, taking her eyes off Suarez for an instant, discerned Gray's figure silhouetted against the sky
She yielded
”There is a rope ladder fastened to the lowest rail, near where the canoe was moored,” she said