Page:Jack Heaton, Wireless Operator (Collins, 1919).djvu/72

 ship to do this and even then one or two of them were capsized.

The Captain suddenly appeared before our window.

“Boys, you have done your duty. Now save yourselves,” and with that he was gone.

I could feel her nose pointing up in the air and I knew she was going down stern-end on. It was only a question of minutes.

“Go on, Perce. I’ll stick here.”

“Go on yourself,” he replied; “if any one stays I will.”

I don’t know exactly what happened but something flying through the air must have hit me, for the next thing I knew I had struck the icy water and had gone down several fathoms. The sudden ducking revived me and when I came up I swam for an overcrowded life-boat. The bos’n pulled me in and a woman’s voice whispered, “Thank God, he’s saved!”

There on the edge of the horizon I could see the dim outline of a ship with a great black stream of smoke in her wake and I knew her for the Arapahoe at last.

“Where’s the little operator?” a man asked me.