She was descending all the time. She had cast loose the rope which fastened the canoe alongside, and her difficulty was to hold the ladder and at the same time, by clinging to the mast, to prevent the canoe from slipping away with the tide. The revolver she gripped between her teeth by the butt. Boyle, puzzled by the sound of her voice, ran from the side of the bridge down the stairs and across the deck. He was a second too late to grasp the top of the mast as it drifted out of reach. He heard Elsie utter a low-voiced command in Spanish, and the dip of a paddle told him that the canoe was in motion. “For the Lord’s sake, what are you doing?” he roared. “I am going to save Captain Courtenay,” was the answer. “You cannot stop me now. Please hoist plenty of lights. If I succeed, look out for me before daybreak. If I fail, good-by!” CHAPTER XVIII. A FULL NIGHT Boyle was very angry. It was a situation which demanded earnest words, and they were forthcoming. Elsie understood them to mean that she need not be in such a purple hurry to disappear into the darkness without the least explanation; thereupon she bade Suarez back the canoe a little. “I am sorry it is necessary to steal away in this fashion,” she said, and the coolness of her tone was highly exasperating to a man who could no more detain her than he could move the _Kansas_ unaided. “I have a plan which requires only a bit of good fortune to render it practicable. I have two assistants—Suarez, whose aid I am compelling, and Joey, who is quite eager. There is no use in risking any more lives. If I do not return you may be sure the worst has happened.” “But what is your plan?” roared Boyle. “It may be just sheer nonsense. Tell me what it is, and I swear by the Nautical Almanac I shall not prevent you from carrying it out if it has any reason behind it.” “I am going to collect all the Indian canoes,” was the amazing answer. “I know it can be done, from what Suarez has said. Once we have the canoes in mid channel, we can set most of them adrift, and bring Captain Courtenay and the others back to the ship in four or five which we will tow to Guanaco Hill. And now, good-by again!” “One moment, Miss Maxwell,” broke in Gray’s quiet voice from the upper deck. “You can’t engineer that scheme with a one-man crew, and he sick and unwilling. I am going with you. You must take me aboard, wet or dry.” “I am well armed, and shall admit of no interference,” she cried. “I promise to obey orders.” “If I wanted you, Mr. Gray, I should have sought your help.” “It is one thing or the other—a wriggle down a rope or a high diving act.” “You have no right to impose such an alternative on me.” “I hate it myself, and I can’t dive worth a cent. You will hear a beastly flop when I strike the damp.” “Mr. Boyle—I call on you to hold him.”