When each knot was securely fastened, Coke vociferated a mighty "Heave away!" But his powerful voice was drowned by the incessant roar of the breakers; not even the united clamor of every man present, fifteen all told, including the drunken chief officer, could make itself heard above the din.

Then Hozier tugged sharply at the rope three times, and it grew taut.

Amid a jubilant cry from the others, he and Iris were lifted clear of the deck.

At once they were carried fully twenty feet to seaward.

As they swung back, not quite so far, and now well above the level of the windlass from which their perilous journey had started, a ready-witted sailor seized a few coils of a thin rope that lay tucked up in the angle of the bulwarks, and flung them across Hozier's arms.
"Take a whip with you, sir!" he yelled, and Philip showed that he understood by gripping the rope between his teeth.