Then I held my breath in sudden excitement, for I felt the cord at my right wrist slip loose. I moved my hand gently, and knew that it was free. The mystery of that strange presence in the water behind me was instantly clear. It was a friend. I didn't stop to think who, nor how he had found me. But some one had been cutting at my bonds, and now I was free. At least my knife hand was free. Instinctively I looked to my belt to see if my weapons had been taken from me. They lay, the knife and the pistol, by the lantern in the bottom of the boat. "One minute!" said the man. I remembered I still had my stiletto hidden at my breast. Perhaps I could draw it before they knew what I was at, and take them by surprise. That would be easier than stooping for my knife and risking a blow at my bent neck. I tightened my muscles for a quick grab at the weapon, and looked across at my two enemies. For some reason I knew I would strike the smaller man first. He was the one who had had the actual killing of my father. I saw the spot on his neck where I would stab. I could almost see the throb of the artery where I meant to strike. "Half a minute!" said the man. Then I felt something hard pushed into my hand. It was the haft of a knife. I knew then it was Dirk who had come to my rescue. "Time!" I hurled myself forward at my father's murderer, and plunged my blade deep into his throat. He sank limply with a choking gasp, and I fell on top of him snarling through my gag in an uncontrollable access of hate and fury. At the same moment there was a splash and a cry, and a huge figure leapt out of the water and dealt with the other man. I saw him as he knelt above his victim draw a knife from his breast dripping dreadfully in the light of the lantern. In a moment I was free of my bonds. I would have stripped the masks from the dead men, and looked on the faces of these enemies of mine who had already tracked my father to his death, and had so nearly sent me to follow him. But Dirk grasped me and pulled me away. "Back," he said in a low harsh voice, "we must swim for it." And he was in the water. I stopped to slip my weapons back into my belt, and stuff the manuscript in my breast; and was over the side and in the sea, striking out in the wake of Dirk for the lights of the brig _Revenge_. CHAPTER XXVII A NIGHT AND A DAY