The main deck was enveloped in clouds of steam, so that, when Vernon had
handed Emily down, the movement could not be seen by Hatchie and his
friends in the hold. In another instant the wreck of the cabins came
tumbling down.
Hatchie, understanding at once the nature of the calamity, made his way,
as well as he was able, through the shattered ruins to the stern, where
he discovered that the boat was gone. The flames from the forward part
of the boat now enabled him to discover the abductors of Emily rowing
down the river. Leaping into the water, he seized a door, which was
floating near him, and thus enabled to sustain himself with tolerable
ease, he swam after them.
Emily, on recovering from the shock, found herself reclining on the
shoulder of a man in an open boat. The first impulse of her pious heart
was to return thanks to the Almighty preserver that she had been rescued
from a terrible death. Her thoughts then turned to her deliverer, for
such she supposed was the person in the boat with her. Who was he? Was
it Henry Carroll? She hoped it was.
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