"Here she comes; she is closer than I thought she was. She will
pass within fifty yards of the stern. It is lucky that we had that
big horn, Major Mallett, for if we had not woke them up when we did
she would have run us down to a certainty."
As the steamer came along, scarcely more than a length astern of
the yacht, a yell of execration broke from the sailors gathered
forward.
"That was a near shave, George," Frank Mallett said, when the
steamer had passed. "It brought me out in a cold sweat at the
thought that, if the Osprey were to be run down, there was an end
to all chance of rescuing Bertha from that scoundrel's clutches. I
don't know that I thought of myself at all. I am a good swimmer,
and I suppose she would have stopped to pick us up. It was the
Osprey I was thinking of. Even if every life on board had been
saved, I don't see how we could have followed up the search without
her."
Chapter 13.
Three hours later the breeze came. Frank was pacing up and down the
deck, when there was a slight creak above. He stopped and looked
up.
"Is that the breeze?" he asked the first mate, whose watch it was.
"I think so, sir, though it may be just the heaving from a steamer
somewhere.
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