Even as he yelled his hands grasped the rope and he began to pull himself from the water. But his weight was pulling the plane down and, as he afterward told Bill, it seemed as though he would never get above it. And the shark was coming with the speed of an express train. But Bill had, the instant Gordon had the rope in his hands, thrown the lever over to the last notch, and nobly did the plane respond. Then came a flash of white as the monster turned to grasp his prey and for a second Gordon gave himself up for lost. But he managed to jerk his body sideways and the shark missed but by so close a margin that the boy’s right foot was brushed by the slippery side of the shark. Before the fish could turn for another rush Gordon was safe and mounting the rope hand over hand. “Talk about your narrow escapes,” he gasped as he drew himself over the side of the cockpit. “Just by the skin of your teeth,” Bill told him, “But, thank God you made it.” Then, as Bill started the forward propeller, Gordon turned his attention to the one he had saved. The body was lying across the rear seat face down and, as he turned it over, he gave a gasp of surprise. “Great guns, it’s a girl.” “Sure is,” Bill told him, “See if you can get any water out of her. I’m afraid she’s pretty far gone.” It was an extremely narrow place in which to work but Gordon knew that it was a time when a minute might mean a life and he at once set to work while Bill headed the plane for the shore. Getting his hands beneath the girl’s body he slowly raised it up and was rewarded by a small expulsion of water from her mouth. Again and again he repeated the movement and each time a small amount of water came from her mouth, but there were no signs of returning life. But now Bill was bringing the plane down over the camp site and soon Rogers lifted the body from the plane and placed it on the ground. “She’s alive,” he declared a moment later. “You sure?” Gordon asked anxiously. Rogers had been awaiting them with his medicine kit ready and now he forced a strong stimulant between her teeth, and a moment later her eye-lids quivered and they knew that they had won the battle against death. An hour later, wrapped in heavy blankets, she was sitting near the fire sipping hot soup and stopping every few minutes to tell the boys how brave they must have been and how grateful she was. She was a very handsome girl but little more than twenty years old and had told them that her name was Laura Mann. It seemed she lived in Honolulu and her father was a wealthy merchant of that city. She had been flying for more than two years and this was the first serious accident she had encountered.