CHAPTER XVI
KOKU'S PRISONER
"Bless my knitting needles!" cried Mr. Damon, as he looked down, and saw, in the glare of the great light, the figure of the woman clinging to the swaying rope. "Help her, someone! Tom! Ned! She'll fall!"
The eccentric man started to rush from the motor room, where he had been helping Ned. But the latter cried:
"Stay where you are, Mr. Damon. No one can reach her now without danger to himself and her. She can climb up, I think."
Past knot after knot the woman passed, mounting steadily upward, with a strength that seemed remarkable.
"Come on!" cried Tom to the others. "Don't wait until she gets up. There isn't time. Come on—the rope will hold you all! Climb up!"
The men in the tossing and bobbing motor boat heard, and at once began, one after the other, to clamber up the rope. There were five of them, as could be seen in the glare of the light, and
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