ile he was thinking, his hands were busy refastening his jacket (which
he had taken down to sleep in) by a sleeve to its former place at the
end of an oar. But there was no occasion to signal. The vessel, a
barque, was running straight towards him before a light breeze under
full sail--as Baldwin Burr would have said, with "stuns'ls slow and
aloft." Believing that he had been observed, he ceased waving his flag
of distress.

But soon a new idea sent a thrill through his heart. No sign of
recognition was made to him as the ship drew near. Evidently the
look-out was careless.

Leaping up, Watty seized the oar, waved his flag frantically, and yelled
out his alarm. Still the ship bore majestically down on him, her huge
bow bulking larger and higher as she drew near. Again Watty yelled,
loud and long, and waved his flag furiously. The ship was close upon
him--seemed almost towering over him. He saw a sailor appear lazily at
the bow with his hands in his pockets. He saw the eyes of that seaman
suddenly display their whites, and his hands, with the ten fingers
extended, fly upwards. He heard a tremendous "Starboard ha-a-a-rd!"
followed by a terrific "Starboard it is!" Then there was a crashing of
rotten wood, a fearful rushing of water in his ears, a bursting desire
to breathe, and a dreadful thrusting downwards into a dark abyss. Even
in that moment of extremity the text of the morning flashed through his
whirling brain--then all was still.

When Watty's mind resumed its office, its owner found himself in a
comfortable berth between warm blankets with a hot bottle at his feet,
and the taste of hot brandy-and-water in his mouth. A man with a rough
hairy visage was gazing earnestly into his face.

"Wall, youngster, I guess," said the man, "that you'd pretty nigh
slipped your cable."

Watty felt thankful that he had not quite slipped his cable, and said
so.

"You went over me, I think," he added.

"Over you! Yes, I just think we did. You went down at the bows--I
see'd you myself--and came up at the starn. The cap'n, he see'd you
come up, an' said you bounced out o' the water like the cork of a
soda-water bottle. But here he comes himself. He told me I wasn't to
speak much to you."

The captain, who was an American, with a sharp-featured and firm but
kindly countenance, entered the berth at the moment.

"Well, my boy, glad to see you revived. You had a narrow escape.
Wouldn't have been so if it had