"Oh, oh! sa--sa--save m--me!" spluttered the girl; and breaking loose, she swung around and caught Dave tightly by the neck.
[Illustration: DAVE CAUGHT HER UNDER THE ARMS, AND, TREADING WATER, BROUGHT BOTH HER AND HIMSELF TO THE SURFACE.--_Page 24._]
It was the strangle-hold of a drowning person, and our hero might have fared badly had not assistance been at hand. But as it was, Roger and Phil reached out, and while Shadow and Ben balanced the rowboat, this pair hauled the girl on board. Then they aided Dave in getting in.
"Oh, oh! Is sh--she d--dead?" gasped the girl, as she looked at the woman who had collapsed on the stern seat.
"No, she has only fainted," answered Roger. "She'll soon be over it."
"How brave you are to come to our rescue!" went on the girl, turning to Dave. "I--I thought I was going to drown!" and she shuddered.
"It was a pretty close call," answered Phil. "My friend here jumped overboard just in the nick of time."
There was just then little time to say more, for others were in the water crying for assistance. In the meantime, there was another cry from the deck of the steam yacht.
"Don't jump overboard! It isn't necessary. The fire is out!"
"Hello! Did you hear that?" queried Dave. "Somebody said the fire is out."
By this time the two other rowboats had picked up eight of those who had leaped overboard. The boys succeeded in getting on board two others, a short, fat man who was puffing like a porpoise, and a young man.
"That settles it," snorted the fat man, as he sank down on one of the seats. "No more ocean pictures for me! All the dramas I act in after this will be on dry land."
"And I sha'n't go to sea again for Mr. Appleby," answered the girl who had been rescued. She was rapidly recovering, and so was the woman on the stern seat.
"Got everybody?" yelled a man from the deck of the steam yacht. And by his cap and uniform the boys knew he must be the captain of the vessel.
"I think so," answered the first mate of the _Eaglet_.
"It was foolish of them to jump overboard," grumbled the captain of the steam yacht. "I told all of them there was no danger."
"No danger!" snorted the mate of the _Eaglet_. "How do you make that out, with all that fire?"
"It wasn't fire--that is, not much of it," was the answer. "It was mostly smoke. We have a moving picture company on board, and they had a lot of fireworks, some of 'em tied up in old sail cloth. The fireworks started to go off--why I don't know--and they set fire to the cloth, and when we wet that down it made an awful smoke. But all the stuff was in a zinc-lined compartment, so there wasn't much real danger. The worst was when those rockets went off and shot up right out of the hatchway."