he shore.

To avoid this catastrophe--which would have been fatal--they moved
shoreward, only when it became absolutely necessary to do so, often
permitting the tidal waves to sweep completely over the crown of their
heads, and several times threaten suffocation.

Under circumstances so trying, so apparently hopeless, most lads--aye,
most men--would have submitted to despair, and surrendered themselves to
a fate apparently unavoidable. But with that true British
pluck--combining the tenacity of the Scotch terrier, the English
bulldog, and the Irish staghound--the three youthful representatives of
the triple kingdom determined to hold on.

And they held on, with the waves washing against their cheeks--and at
intervals quite over their heads--with the briny fluid rushing into
their ears and up their nostrils, until one after another began to
believe, that there would be no alternative between surrendering to the
cruel sea, or to the not less cruel sons of the Saaera.

As they were close together, they could hold council,--conversing all
the time in something louder than a whisper. There was no risk of their
being overheard. Though scarce a cable's length from the shore, the
hoarse soughing of the surf would have drowned the sound of their
voices, even if uttered in a much louder tone; but being skilled in the
acoustics of the ocean, they exchanged their thoughts with due caution;
and while encouraging one another to remain firm, they speculated freely
upon the chances of escaping from their perilous predicament.

While thus occupied, a _predicament_ of an equally perilous, and still
more singular kind, was in store for them. They had been, hitherto
advancing towards the water's edge,--in regular progression with the
influx of the tide,--all the while upon their knees. This, as already
stated, had enabled them to sustain themselves steadily, without showing
anything more than three quarters of the head above the surface.

All at once, however, the water appeared to deepen; and by going upon
their knees they could no longer surmount the waves,--even with their
eyes. By moving on towards the beach, they might again get into shallow
water; but just at this point the commotion caused by the breakers came
to a termination, and the flakes of froth, with the surrounding spray of
bubbles, here bursting, one after another, left the surface of the sea
to its restored tranquillity. Anything beyond--a cork, or the tiniest
waif o