Macfarlane was helping me, but he was hit by a bullet and dropped across the thwarts.

I thought he was dead!" "Dead or alive, he is better off than we," said De Sylva.

He questioned Marcel again briefly.

"There can be no doubt that the man in the boat cast off the lashings when he found that the ship was sinking," he continued in English.

"Marcel saw him doing that, and wondered why he was alone.