"Matt!" whooped Carl, in a spasm of fear and apprehension. "It was our bard dot tumpled oferpoard!"
Dick rushed for the boat which the sailors, under an officer's direction, were getting ready to lower.
"We're going along!" shouted Dick wildly.
"I'm a sailor," answered Dick, "and I can help! Motor Matt's my mate, and I'm going to help save him!"
Without waiting for permission, both Dick and Carl sprang into the boat. There was no time to lose making the boys get back on the deck, or arguing the question, and the officer yielded his place to Dick.
"Lower away!" he shouted, and the blocks rattled as the boat dropped from the davits.
Sixty's unprovoked and murderous attack on Matt had been made with such brutal suddenness that the king of the motor boys had had no chance to defend himself. Before he fairly realized what had happened he was under the water and fighting his way upward to the surface. Had he not been such a good swimmer the weight of his clothing would have dragged him down and rendered his case hopeless. He was seriously handicapped, as it was, and when he gained the top of the water he was thankful to find a life-preserver bobbing and ducking beside him.
How the life-preserver happened to be there he did not know, but he seized hold of it gratefully and allowed it to support him in the tumbling waves. By that time the _Santa Maria_ was far in the distance, but there was a commotion on her decks which indicated that the cry of "Man overboard!" was receiving a prompt response. The sharp orders of the officer of the deck, the cries of excited passengers, and even the jingle of the engine-room bell came distinctly to the ears of the youth in the water.
Matt, although still bewildered, congratulated himself on escaping the swiftly-revolving screw. He had been thrown from the ship near the stern, and it was a piece of luck that the suction had not drawn him under the sharp propeller-blades.
Buffeted by the waves, Matt swung back and forth in the water and watched while the boat was lowered. Dick and Carl were in the boat, and there were two sailors at the oars. Dick, at the bow, was coiling a piece of rope in his hands, making ready for a cast as soon as the boat should come near enough.