"The weed on the steps is slippery and I'm not going down. A yachtsman jumps into a punt," he said. A yacht's punt is small and generally unstable, and to jump on board needs skill. Marston came up and seized Chisholm's shoulder. "Don't be a fool, Jack!" he said. "It's six or seven feet. If you don't capsize her, you'll go through the bottom." "Think I can't jump six feet?" the lad exclaimed, and Wyndham imagined he had drunk some wine at the committee supper. "Anyhow, I'll try." He shook off Marston's hand and leaped. His dark figure vanished and there was a splash below. Marston and the others climbed down the steps, but Wyndham jumped. He went under water and knew the risk he ran when he came up; he had known when he made the plunge. The tide swept him past the boats and broke angrily among the ironwork. One might get entangled and pulled down, and if a punt came to help, she would probably capsize when the current drove her against a brace. For a moment or two he drifted, and then saw something dark wash about in a wedge of foam. It was Chisholm, clinging to an iron and trying to keep his head above water. "Let go! I'll pick you up on the other side," shouted Wyndham, and the current swept them under a beam. Then he grasped the lad's shoulder and steered him between two pillars. The splash of oars indicated that a boat was pulling round the pier. Wyndham's arm struck a cross-bar and next moment something caught his leg, but he went clear and, dragging Chisholm with him, drifted into the moonlight. He felt safe now; all they need do was to wait until the boat arrived. They were a hundred yards from the pier when she came up and Marston leaned over the bow. "Let me have him," he said. "Back her and sit steady, Tom." Wyndham knew he could trust Bob and let Chisholm go. Marston dragged him on board and then balanced the boat while Wyndham lifted himself over the stern. Chisholm did not seem much the worse, for he began to squeeze the water from his clothes and laughed. "Trouble was, the punt I jumped for wasn't there," he said. "Imagine I owe you something, Wyndham. The other fellows couldn't have got me while I stuck to the brace, and if I'd let go, I'd have gone under the irons." "That's all right!" Wyndham remarked. "You'll look before you jump another time." They put Chisholm on board a steam yacht and when they reached _Red Rose_ Marston said, "It was lucky for Jack you were about. We couldn't have got in between the braces with the punt." "It was a stroke of luck for both of us," Wyndham replied with a laugh. CHAPTER III CHISHOLM'S PERSUASION