ther. "I--I tried to grab him, but I was
too late. I nearly went over myself," he added, grimly.

"Yes," assented the old salt, "you did," and he shot a look at the
other.

Did Alice fancy it, or did Lacomb wince, and shrink back? And did a look
pass between him and Captain Brisco--a look full of meaning?

Alice was puzzling over these questions in her own mind, when the
helmsman spoke.

"It wasn't _my_ fault," he said. "I was steering all right, but Captain
Brisco came and spoke to me and handed me a paper. I took one hand off
the wheel, and the----"

"No one has said it was your fault," broke in the commander quickly. "I
was giving you a copy of the sailing orders for the day. I wouldn't have
bothered you if I had known a puff of wind and a big wave were coming
along together, to snatch the wheel out of your grip. But it wasn't your
fault. However, no harm is done. You had better get below, Mr. Jepson,
and put on some dry clothes. Mr. Lacomb will stand watch until you feel
all right again."

"Oh, I'll be all right in a little while," Jack said. "I don't need no
one to stand my trick on deck. I'll be back shortly."

He went below, the water dripping from him. The ship was put back on her
course. The excitement had not lasted long.

"Too bad you didn't have a camera ready, Russ," said Paul to the
operator, when matters were normal aboard the _Mary Ellen_ once more.
"You might have filmed a good rescue scene."

"I was too much excited to think about that," Russ admitted. "Besides,
we are going to have plenty of rescue stuff in a few days, and this
wasn't a particularly thrilling one. Poor old Jack! I wonder how it
feels to fall overboard?"

"Not very pleasant," Paul said. He had done it more than once in the
interests of the pictures.

Alice, going below for something a little later, met the old salt on his
way to the deck again, he having changed to dry garments.

"Oh, are you all right?" she asked anxiously, for she and her sister, as
well as Mr. DeVere, had taken a liking to Jepson. "Are you all right?"

"All right, Miss Alice," he replied. "No harm done at all."

"I thought sailors never fell overboard," she said, half jokingly. "I
supposed they were so sure-footed that accidents like that never
happened to them."

"They don't--not usual like, Miss," said Jack with that earnest, honest
air that characterized him.

"Then how did you come to do it?"

"I--I didn't do it, Miss," Jack answered. "I di