ed the
latter, "but we ought to try, I suppose."

As no man pulled a stouter oar than he did, Mr Collinson gladly
accepted him, as he did Windy.

Four other men were selected, and waiting for a favourable lull, the
boat was lowered. The bowman, however, in shoving off, lost his
balance, and overboard he went. Happily, the man next to him had just
time to seize him by the leg, and haul him in, though not without
difficulty his oar was saved. Not without sad forebodings of the fate
of the boat's crew, did the captain see her leave the ship's side.

"No man can handle a boat better than Collinson," he observed to Mr
Barker, who was by his side, "that's one comfort."

Away the boat pulled amidst the foaming broken seas, and was soon lost
to sight in the thick gloom which had settled down over the ocean.

"I should be thankful to see something of them again," observed the
captain to Mr Barker. "The boat has been a long time away. How long
do you think?"

"I did not look at my watch when she was lowered," answered the first
lieutenant, "but it is some time; yet the sea is a dangerous one; but,
as you say, sir, Collinson is wonderful handy in a boat, and he and his
crew will do what men can do, there is no doubt about that."

Still the captain looked very anxious, so did others on board. Even in
the attempt to pick up Bill, should he have floated so long, the boat
might be swamped. It was the most critical time; for the helmsman
looking towards the man he wished to save, might watch with less care
the approach of a curling sea. Had old Grim been on board he would have
been prognosticating dire disaster, but as he had gone away in the boat,
he knew better than anybody else on board, what had happened. Many had
become very anxious. Tommy Rebow, who was very fond of Bill, as well as
of Jack Windy, wrung his hands, almost bursting into tears, as, not
seeing them return, he began to fear that they both had been lost.

Meantime, where was Bill? On falling from aloft, and striking the
chain-span, which, though it did not break his bones, broke his fall, he
bounded off into the foaming sea. How he had not been killed he could
not tell, but one thing was certain, it was not his head that struck the
chain, but, as Jack Windy observed, it was the other end of his body.
The fact at all events was, that he reached the foaming raging water not
at all the worse for his fall. Though he went under for a moment, he
soon ro