Dabner & Blaze

"Cole!" she shouted again and again. There was no answer. If she didn't do something, they were both going to drown. She saw the rubber raft tugging slowly after the vessel and she swam for it. It took her a few minutes to reach it, but when it was within her grasp, a few strong strokes brought her to the raft's side and she clambered aboard without upsetting it. Breathless, she fumbled in her pocket for something she always carried with her--a pocket knife. With it, she sawed on the tether rope until she severed it. To her knowledge, no one on board 'The Tiger's Eye' had seen her. Then her eyes turned in the direction she'd been a few minutes before.

They couldn't seek assistance in the direction of the ship. If they did manage to get back on board, they'd only be thrown back into the ocean. But they could probably make it to safety in this raft. They had stumbled onto something important; but she was more concerned about the predicament they were now in: alone in the ocean, miles from anywhere, and Cole injured or possibly dead.

The raft bounced over the waves created by the larger vessel. Again and again, she called out to Cole, as she paddled by hand back to the spot where they'd been thrown overboard. She saw a dark mass floating nearby and she paddled the rubber raft over to it. It was Cole--unconscious and face down in the water!