At that moment Rodney Darringford reached his father’s side, and as he realized their awful peril, cried: “Come with me, father!” The man at the wheel was in the act of signaling to the engineer to shut off steam and reverse the power, when Colonel Darringford, as white as a ghost, sprang forward and dashing Dan Dame aside seized the wheel in his own frenzied clutch. “Port your helm!” shrieked Jack Carboy in a voice heard by all of the terrified spectators. “Hard-a-port, or we’ll run you down!” The next moment he gasped in a husky voice: “That madman will send us to the bottom!” Seeing the inevitable fate in store for both steamers, Dean Mercer shouted: “Shut off the power! Reverse----” Jack Carboy, as true as steel, threw his giant strength to the lever in a wild endeavor to save the steamer. Too late! CHAPTER XIII. THE FATE OF THE “WARRIOR.” The passengers on board the ill-fated steamers turned pale with terror. Wild commands were shouted from both of the boats--commands no man could obey. Jack Carboy did his best to avert the catastrophe, and the _Spray_ obeyed her master as only a perfect piece of mechanism could. But Colonel Darringford seemed to have suddenly been changed to a madman. In spite of the iron-clad rule of navigation that he was breaking; in spite of the doom that awaited him and all on his steamer, he bore madly down across the path of the _Spray_. In a moment a terrible crash sounded above the cries of human beings. A shock--a mighty plunge--a downward sweep of the bows of the _Warrior_ and a swift sheering off of the _Spray_, and the collision was over. The prompt action of the officers and crew of the new steamer averted what at first seemed certain destruction to both boats. But as it was the older and weaker craft was soon struggling helplessly in the pathway of the other. Some of the passengers on the _Warrior_ were flung headlong into the water; others jumped overboard in their alarm, while those who remained on the decks were thrown in heaps together. Fortunately none was killed on the _Spray_, though many were injured to greater or less extent. The steamer had received a jagged rent in her port where the old steamer had struck. But it was nothing that could not be repaired so they could keep on their way. But it was soon evident that the _Warrior_ would have to be overhauled before she could run on another trip. Boats were lowered and lines dropped to those in the water, and so rapidly did the work of rescue go on that in less than half an hour after the shock of the collision all of the passengers on the _Warrior_ had been taken on the _Spray_. As far as could be ascertained no lives had been lost. It was decided to try and get the _Warrior_ into the dock at Landlock. Rodney Darringford came on board the _Spray_, but his father, who showed that he had recovered from the influence of the liquor, did not. He was bitter in his denunciations of the rival boat.