, all was not yet lost, for the boat
would do its best to dodge the _canot_ while the _Bella Cuba's_ cannon
seized their chance to work once more.

George kept under water as long as he could, then came up to breathe and
venture a glance round. Crack! went a pistol-shot close to his head, and
he dived again; but not before he had seen the yacht's boat not thirty
yards off. How near the _canot_ lay he had not been able to inform
himself, but the narrow shave he had just had gave him a hint that it
could not be far distant. He aimed for the boat as well as he could
judge, felt an ominous, cold touch, dived deeper for a shark, forged
ahead again, trying to forget the double danger, came up to breathe
because he must, and could have yelled for joy, if he had had breath
enough in his lungs, to see that either Roger or Maxime was being pulled
into the yacht's boat, while a second head bobbed on the water a couple
of yards away. The air cracked with revolver-shots, but George was not
the target now: the eyes of the surveillants were for the fugitives
nearest safety. Whether Roger or Dalahaide were hit, George could not
tell, but he kept his head above water in sheer self-forgetfulness until
both had been hauled on board. Then he dived again, and when he rose to
the surface he was close to the boat. It was his turn to be helped over
the side and to become a target. Something whizzed past his ear, leaving
it hot and wet, and he had a sudden burning pain in his left arm; but
nothing mattered, for there were Roger and Maxime, and he was beside
them. The rowers had set to their work with a will once more, not to
reach the _Bella Cuba_ with the best speed, but to dodge from between her
guns and the _canot_. Once she could let her cannon speak, the _canot_
was no longer to be feared. Brave as the Frenchmen were, clearly as they
had right on their side, from their point of view, they would have to
recognize that they were helpless, that the rest of the battle was to the
strong.

A moment more, and one of the little cannon roared a warning. She did not
try to hit the _canot_; the message she sent was but to say, "Hands off,
or take the consequences." And the men of the _canot_ understood. Not
only did they cease firing, but began to retire with leisurely dignity
toward the point which hid the disabled prison boat.

Now, suddenly, when all such peril was over, the thought of that slimy,
cold touch on his flesh, and what it had meant,