ock entrance, and the unfortunate woman had
risen to the surface, and was beating the water slowly with her hand.

"She'll be drowned long before that boat's down," said a gruff voice
behind me, plainly heard in the shouting and excitement. "Why don't
they throw her a life-buoy?"

As whoever it was spoke a yellow ring fell from the vessel, splashed,
and floated on the surface, but nowhere near the drowning woman. Two
men ran along the quay to throw ropes. Other ropes were sent flying in
rings from the _Jumna's_ stern; but I could see that the woman was too
helpless to reach them, even if she saw them, which was doubtful, and
the watching and waiting grew horrible.

The woman was now many yards away from where I stood, and I had seen her
wild eyes gazing up as if into mine as we glided by her, the look
seeming in my excitement to appeal specially to me, and at last I could
bear it no longer.

I drew myself up on to the bulwark, and looked round.

The boat stuck with something wrong about one of the davits; no other
boat was visible; no one had leaped and swum to save the woman, whose
clothes, after sustaining her for some moments, were gradually sinking
out of sight, and the motion of her hand grew slower.

"Yes; she'll be drowned long before they can save her," I said, I
believe aloud, for I seemed to hear the words; and then, without
calculating the consequences, I dived from the high side of the great
East Indiaman, struck the surface, and went on down, down, into the
black muddy water, till I felt as if I should never rise.

Then there was light once again, and I struck out, dimly conscious of
shouts and cheering, but fully awake to the fact that I was swimming
there with the ship gliding away, and the steep forbidding wall of the
dock about a score or two of yards distant, looking slippery, and as if
it would afford no hold if I swam there, as for the moment I felt urged
to do.

For I had forgotten the object which made me plunge into the dock, and
the long immersion had confused me for the time being, as I tried vainly
to make out what people were shouting to me from the quay.

All at once, away to my right, I saw a hand appear above the surface,
and like a flash it came back, and, amidst shrieks and cheers, I swam as
hard as I could for the spot, to reach it just as the hand disappeared.

For the moment I thought all was over, but, thrusting my hands down,
they touched something, and the snatch I gav