CHAPTER XV.
GONE! Neither Jack Everson nor Dr.Marlowe forgot his own personal danger in hurrying to the help of their imperilled friends.

If the two were too late to be of any assistance they were imminently likely to precipitate themselves into the same whirlpool of woe and death.

They had slowed their gait to a walk as they neared the spot, and when they caught the dim outlines of the boat the two stood still.
So far as they could see there was no change in its surroundings.

It was still moored against the bank, so close that any one could step aboard, but no sign of living person was visible on or about it.

There was something so uncanny in it all that but for their mutual knowledge they would have doubted the evidence of their senses.
"I don't understand it," whispered Jack.