to a point above water. He got to his knees,
then to his feet, and as he stood up, dripping and dizzy, a shout came to
him. Roger's voice again!--but no longer sharp with horror and loathing.
There he stood on another low peak of the reef, and Dalahaide was beside
him, slimmer, taller, and straighter than he, as the two figures were
darkly outlined against the light.

They were safe, at least from the sharks; and from the _Bella Cuba_ a
boat with four rowers was swiftly approaching. The reaction of joy after
the resignation of despair was almost too great. George Trent's throat
contracted with a sob, and there was a stinging of his eyelids which was
not caused by the salt of the sea.

"Hurrah!" he cried out, waving his hand to the two men on the reef, and
to the rowers in the boat. While his shout still rang in the air a
_canot_, such as that in which they had crossed from Noumea to the Ile
Nou, manned by twelve rowers, leaped round the point of rock behind
which the French boat had disappeared, and came straight as an arrow for
the reef on which the three men stood.

Now it was a race once more for life and death. The yacht's boat had the
start, but those twenty-four oars carried the _canot_, heavy as it was,
far faster through the water. The _Bella Cuba_ could not use her cannon
lest she should destroy her own friends, so nearly did the two boats
cross each other as both from, different directions, sped toward the same
goal.

The yachtsmen's blood was up, and they worked like heroes, but they were
four to twelve. The _canot_ shot ahead and got the inside track. The
race, as a race, could now have but one end. The _canot_ was bound to be
first at the spot where the runaway _forcat_ and one of his English
friends stood side by side out of reach of the hungry sharks, but not
beyond the grasp of justice. The fugitives, who had fought so long with
the sea, were unarmed, while the four surveillants in the _canot_ had
revolvers, and would either recapture or kill.

But Maxime Dalahaide spoke a word to his companion; and, as if the
triumph of the _canot_ over the yacht's boat had been a signal, the two
sprang from the shelf of the reef into the sea. George Trent knew well
what was in their minds; they preferred to risk being food for sharks to
certain capture; and without hesitating for an instant, George followed
their example. If they could swim under water to the yacht's boat before
the sharks took up the prison cause