"Bear a hand, old man!" exclaimed Webb, after a vain attempt to scramble upon the boat's side.
"Don't know. Fancy I must be," replied the Sub dully.
Had not Haynes grasped his comrade by the shoulders Webb would have dropped inertly from the balk of timber into the sea. Everything was turning a dazzling white before his eyes. His nerveless hands were holding on to the top-strake of the cutter, yet he was unconscious of the fact.
"Buck up!" exclaimed Haynes encouragingly. "Now, up she comes!"
With a determined effort the Sub of the whaler heaved his chum upon the cutter's waterways.
"Where are you hit, old man?" he asked, but the question was unanswered. Sub-lieutenant Tom Webb was unconscious.
WITH assistance Dicky Haynes contrived to carry his brother Sub to the diminutive cabin, where three badly wounded men had already been placed in comparative shelter. More for his chum, Dicky Haynes was unable to do for the present. His duty required him to be on deck to assist the already hard-worked Osborne.
The bow gun was still firing. Not that any of the enemy were visible, but merely to let them know that sections of the cliffs in the vicinity of the steamboat were decidedly "unhealthy". The Turkish infantry had suffered fairly heavily when they appeared above the crest, and the renewed fire from the steam cutter was sufficient to keep them at a discreet distance.
"Easy astern!" ordered the Lieutenant. "One of you nip below and see if she's strained."
A seaman disappeared down the hatchway of the fore-cabin, quickly reappearing with the disconcerting news that there was water on the floorboards.
"A couple of hands to try and locate the leak," continued Osborne. Then grasping the flexible voice-tube he gave the leading stoker instructions to couple up the steam bilge-pump.
Having drawn clear of the boom, and left the pulling cutter and the whaler to their fate, the steamboat forged ahead, and put a safe distance betwixt her and the trap that had all but proved fatal to the unfortunate landing party.
The result of running ahead was to increase the rush of water through the holed plank, which, located close to the bulkhead at the fore-end of the stokehold, was awkward to get at. Moreover, a hole in a diagonal-planked craft is specially difficult to repair, even in a temporary fashion. In spite of the action of the powerful pumps the water was gaining, although the transverse bulkhead kept the engine-room from being flooded. Yet the danger of the boat foundering had to be faced.