Blindly, Nancy jumped. As her feet struck the dock, willing hands reached out to aid her. The three men who had saved her sprang after her and likewise reached safety.
“Just in time!” someone murmured.
Nancy, still weak from the ordeal through which she had just gone, wheeled about and gazed toward the motorboat. She saw that it was rapidly sinking.
“The Crandall jewels!” she thought miserably. “They’ll go to the bottom of the river.”
She dared not go back to the cabin, and yet there must be some way to save Emily’s inheritance! Frantically, she glanced up and down the dock and then out across the water. As she saw that the yacht was standing-by close to the sinking motorboat, a sudden idea came to her.
Running along the dock until she stood opposite the yacht, she hailed the captain who was at the rail.
“Don’t let that motorboat sink!” she cried. “There’s a valuable cargo aboard. Can’t you use grappling hooks and save it?”
“We’ll try it, Miss,” came the reassuring response.
Now that Nancy Drew had done all she could to save the Crandall jewels, she recalled what Bud had told his sister about leaving Tom Tozzle to drown. Horrified at such inhumanity, she glanced toward the inky waters, willing, if need be, to attempt a rescue herself.
“I’m afraid it’s too late,” she told herself.
However, at that moment a cry went up from the crowd which had gathered on the dock. Nancy turned just in time to see two bedraggled