We stood there against the wind, as doomed and helpless Joe Clark's tug crashed on to the fatal Ghoul. It clung there, as if trying to live. Five,--ten,--fifteen minutes it clung, being beaten and ripped against the teeth of the rock; then suddenly it split and dissolved from view. Neil had the telescope at his eye again. He handed it to me quickly. "George!--look and tell me. D'ye see anybody clinging there to the far tooth of The Ghoul? My eyes ain't too good. But, if yon's a man, God rest his soul." I riveted my gaze on the point. There I could see as clearly as if it were only a few yards off. Even the features of the man who clung there so tenaciously I could make out. "My God! It is Joe Clark," I exclaimed in excitement. With the cry of a mother robbed of her young, Rita dashed down the rocks to the cove where Neil Andrews' boat lay. She pushed it into the water and sprang into it, pulling against the tide-rip like one possessed. I darted after her, but she was already ten yards out when the boat swamped and was thrown back on the beach. Just as the undertow was sucking Rita away, I grabbed at her and dragged her to safety. "Let me go! Let me go!" she screamed, battering my chest. "It's Joe. It's my Joe. He's drowning." I held her fast. She looked up at me suddenly with a strange quietness, as if she did not understand me and what I did. As she spoke, she forgot her King's English. "Ain't you goin' to help him? It's Joe. You ain't scared o' the sea. You can do it. Get him to me, George. Oh!--get me Joe. I want him. I want him. He's mine." I grasped her by the arm and shook her, as I shouted in her ear: "Do you love Joe,--Rita;--love him enough to marry him if I go out for him?" "Oh, yes, yes! Get him, George. I love Joe. I always loved him." In that moment, I made up my mind. "If we come back, little woman," I cried, "it will be down there at the end of the Island. Run home;--get grand-dad and the others in some boats. It isn't so bad down there. Watch out for us. "If I don't come back, Rita,--dear, little Rita----" I took her face in my hands and pressed my lips on hers. I ran from her, up over the cliffs, away to the far side of the horn, where the eddy made the sea quieter. I threw off my boots and superfluous clothing and sprang into the water. Out, out I plunged, and plunged again, keeping under water most of the time, until at last I got caught in the terrible rush three hundred yards straight out from the point. I well knew the dreadful odds I was facing, yet I was unafraid. The sea was my home, almost as much as the land. I laughed at its buffeting. I defied it. What cared I? What had I to lose?--nothing! And,--I might win Joe for Rita, and make her happy. In the very spirit of my defiance, I was calling up forces to work and fight for me, forces that faint-heartedness and fear could never have conjured to their aid.