Jan judged them to be a bridal couple. They were saying nothing--just
holding each other and waiting. He hesitated an instant and then he saw
a woman with a baby. She was leaning heavily against a stanchion
crooning to the baby. He now saw that she was almost a middle-aged
woman, a poorly dressed and toil-worn woman--a Finnish woman probably.
Jan's doubt was gone. He jumped to her side. "Want to save your baby?"
The woman looked up at him and down at the baby. "Baby!" she said, and
held it toward Jan. "Yes, save baby," she said. "Come!" said Jan, and
grasped her hand. Then the lights went out.
Jan had marked the ladder in his mind, and in the dark he made his way
toward it; but before he could get to it there were many adventures. He
went floundering this way and that, but holding the baby in one arm and
dragging the mother with the other, he held on until he bumped into a
stanchion in the dark. "It's near here," he thought; and, reaching out
with his feet, he found the bottom step of the ladder.
He had two decks to surmount. On the boat-deck, as he passed up, he
could hear the ship's men shouting wildly and foolishly to each other.
On the top deck he found the three just as he had left them. He gave the
woman and baby into the care of the bartender and felt about until he
found a coil of rope. He cut it loose and, carrying it back to the raft,
lashed Mrs.
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