The people on the steamboat had, of course, been expecting a boat to come to them, and they were looking for it to come around the end of the island. And we may be quite certain that no one watched for it with greater eagerness than Helen and Mr. Berkeley. Their grief and dismay, therefore, when they saw two women in the stern of the boat and no Chap, need not be described. Was he not coming? If they could have looked through the reeds and bushes to the other side of the island they would have known that Chap was coming! The moment that the foremost boat turned the point of reeds, Chap’s frenzy doubled. “Wake up!” he screamed. “Are you going to sleep, and have me left? Ten more pulls, and we’ve got her! Give way now! Give way! Tear at it, I tell you! Tear at it!” They had now reached the reeds, but Chap had no intention of going around them. They were growing in the water, and the water would certainly float his boat. “Pull around, you Bill,” he cried. “Smash right through them! Drive her through, boys! Drive her through!” The tall reeds bent beneath the sudden dash of the boat and the wild sweep of the oars; and in a few seconds Chap’s little craft was out in the open water beyond. Just ahead of her, and not twenty feet away, was the countess’s boat. Chap’s men were rowing as madly as ever, and in a few strokes they would be upon it. “Stop!” yelled Chap. “Back water!” But these words had no effect on his two negroes. He had been shouting and yelling to them ever since they started, and they did not now notice what he said. They were so filled with savage excitement that they paid no attention to mere words. The men in the other boat tried to pull out of the way, but they were not quick enough. Chap’s boat crashed into that of the countess, smashing in one side, and nearly turning it over with the violence of the shock. [Illustration] CHAPTER XXXIII. WHICH FINISHES THE STORY. When Chap’s boat dashed into that of the countess, it struck the latter craft on one side, near the stern, crashing into her as if she had been an earthen pot. The water would have instantly rushed in had not this broken side been lifted in the air by the violence of the shock, turning the countess and her woman into the water as neatly as if they had been slipped out of a ladle. One of the oarsmen also went overboard, but the other one sprang to his feet at the moment of collision, and jumped on Chap’s boat. The two negroes who had been rowing Chap looked around, utterly dazed by the shock, while our hero, as pale as a sheet, sat speechless in the stern. He could scarcely believe that this dreadful thing had happened; but in an instant his face flushed, and he was on his feet.