sistance again, Harris made ready for a spring.

Jack saw this move and called:

"Wait a minute, Harris!"

Harris stayed his spring and Jack again advanced to his side. Jack's
face was white and his clothing was dripping water. He was very angry
and his fingers clenched and unclenched.

"You men," he said in a cold voice, "were given a chance for your lives
the same as the rest of us. Now you will either throw down those knives
or die."

One made as if to obey, but the other stopped him.

"Wait!" he cried. "He wants us to throw down our knives so they can
overpower us."

To the other this seemed good reasoning. Both Germans, still wielding
their weapons, drew backward slowly. Jack and Harris advanced as slowly
after them.

"Drop them!" cried Jack, again.

Suddenly one of the Germans sprang forward and aimed a vicious blow at
Jack with his knife. The move had been so unexpected, retreating as the
men had been, that Jack was almost caught off his guard. He sidestepped
quickly, however, and avoided the knife.

But in leaping aside he had jostled Harris, who, dodging a blow aimed
by the second German, now was thrown off his balance. In vain he tried
to catch himself. It was no use. He went over the side of the boat,
uninjured, but for the moment unable to lend Jack a hand.

With two foes before him, Jack realized there was not a moment to be
lost. He determined to take the offensive himself, in spite of the odds
against him.

With a subdued cry of anger, he charged the two Germans, in spite of
the violent rocking of the boat. He caught a stabbing wrist with his
right hand and twisted sharply even as he drove his left fist into the
man's face. There was a cry of pain and the knife clattered to the
bottom of the boat. Again and again the lad struck, paying no attention
to the second man. Then, with an extra vicious blow, he knocked the
German clear of the boat into the sea.

At the same instant, Harris, who was just climbing back into the boat,
uttered a cry of warning and Jack turned just in time to dodge a knife
thrust aimed at him by the second German.

With only a single enemy before him, a smile broke over Jack's face. He
called to Harris.

"Stay back, Harris. I'm going to settle with this man myself."

The German shrank back, and for a moment it seemed that he would throw
down his knife and cry for mercy. But if he had such a thought in his
mind, he discarded it; he sprang at Jack, fiercely.

Agai