he came, nearer and nearer. He
longed to strike out towards her, but he felt that the attempt would be
useless, so he still lay floating with his hands moving, to prevent
being rolled over and over by the seas. On she came, her dark masts and
sails seen clearly against the sky, but she seemed about to pass him at
a distance. Then he saw her heave-to. And now his heart beat
anxiously. Would a boat be sent to pick him up? He was still too far
away to give him a hope of reaching it by swimming. He thought,
too,--"If I sing out I shall exhaust myself, and be unable to keep
afloat;" so he lay as before, hoping only as a person in his position
could hope, that a boat might be lowered. Yet he had been long enough
at sea to know the danger of the operation. He had heard of boats being
lowered in such a sea as was then running, and all hands being lost out
of them. He waited and waited. It seemed to him not as if one hour,
but hour after hour passed away, and there lay the ship, and yet no one
on board could see him, nor could he make himself heard, as he thought.

"They are looking for me, there's no doubt about that," he said to
himself; "but I wish they would send a boat."

If the water had been cold he could not have kept up, but it was just
pleasant, and he felt his strength in no way exhausted. At length, amid
the hurly-burly and clashing of the sea round him, although the corvette
was a long way to leeward, he heard Captain Trevelyan's voice shouting
out, "Up with the helm! Square away the after-yards!"

"Now," thought Bill, "I shall be left alone if I do not make myself
heard;" and as he rose to the summit of a sea, he shouted out with might
and main, "_Lilly_ ahoy!"

"Hold fast!" cried the captain. "Down with the helm again!" and then
came a hearty cheer from the deck of the ship.

It convinced him that his voice had been heard, but now he had a long
long time to wait. He was sure that a boat was being lowered, but
sometimes he pictured her to himself swamped alongside, and perhaps all
those coming to his rescue cast into the foaming sea. Anxiously he
looked out for her. How long it had seemed since he had shouted, and
yet no help had come to him. His confidence in his captain, however,
was unabated. He was sure that help would come, sooner or later. All
he had to do was to float till then. Fortunately, he did not think of
sharks, but still more fortunately, the sharks did not think of him. At