rowed, and the
third hung over the bows, ready to grasp the miserable wretch. The
_Grosvenor_ stood steady, about a mile off, with her mainyards backed;
and just as the fellow over the boat's bows caught hold of the
swimmer's hair, the ensign was run up on board the ship and dipped
three times.

"Bring him along!" I shouted. "They'll be off without us if we don't
bear a hand."

They nearly capsized the boat as they dragged the lunatic, streaming
like a drowned rat, out of the water; and one of the sailors tumbled
him over on his back, and knelt upon him, while he took some turns with
the boat's painter round his body, arms and legs. The boat then came
alongside; and watching our opportunity, we jumped into her and shoved
off.

I had now leisure to examine the persons whom we had saved.

They--father and daughter, as I judged them by the girl's exclamation
on the wreck--sat in the stern-sheets, their hands locked. The old man
seemed nearly insensible; leaning backward with his chin on his breast
and his eyes partially closed. I feared he was dying; but could do no
good until we reached the _Grosvenor_, as we had no spirits in the boat.

The girl appeared to be about twenty years of age; very fair, her hair
of golden straw color, which hung wet and streaky down her back and
over her shoulders, though a portion of it was held by a comb. She was
deadly pale, and her lips blue; and in her fine eyes was such a look of
mingled horror and rapture as she cast them around her,--first glancing
at me, then at the wreck, then at the _Grosvenor_,--that the memory of
it will last me to my death. Her dress, of some dark material, was
soaked with salt water up to her hips, and she shivered and moaned
incessantly, though the sun beat so warmly upon us that the thwarts
were hot to the hand.

The mad sailor lay at the bottom of the boat, looking straight into the
sky. He was a horrid-looking object, with his streaming hair, pasty
features, and red beard, his naked shanks and feet protruding through
his soaking, clinging trousers, which figured his shin-bones as though
they clothed a skeleton. Now and again he would give himself a wild
twirl and yelp out fiercely; but he was well-nigh spent with his swim,
and on the whole was quiet enough.

I said to the girl, "How long have you been in this dreadful position?"

"Since yesterday morning," she answered, in a choking voice painful to
hear, and gulping after each word. "We