Explore "A Secret Service" by Fred M. White on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The challenge from the police boat held no terrors for Ida. She had nothing to fear from the authorities; indeed, her anxiety lay with the boat behind her. There might be an awkward explanation, but once she was in the hands of the police she would be free from danger. She waited for the flash to come again, then it seemed as if a great black wall had suddenly risen from the river, and cut her off from safety. It had not occurred to her at the moment that the boats were drifting, and that they were lying now against the side of a big tramp steamer. Below this was a mass of shipping and some slack water formed by a warehouse jutting out into the stream. So far as Ida was concerned, the police wherry might be at Gravesend for any chance of rescue from that quarter. As the other boat overtook her she felt the bow grating against her own frail craft. A second later a rough hand was hid upon her shoulder. It was so intensely dark lying against the huge black hull that she could make out nothing. The arm tightened about her waist and a voice hissed an order in her ear--
"Don't struggle," it said. "If you do that we shall all be in the water, and you don't want to drown any more than we do. Stand up, but be careful. If you give us what we want it will be all right."