broken reed of a rope, knew it could not
sustain the strain of Oscar's weight; it snapped, and he was gone,
falling down, to be caught by that very ledge of rock upon which he was
to land the girls. He would never do it now; he moaned as he fell, then
he lay, face downward, terribly motionless and still. And the girls were
not rescued.

"Oh, Dick! the water is lifting us off our feet," wailed Jenny.

"Do you think he's dead?" cried Inna, still holding the affrighted twins
in her embrace.

"Jenny, you know how to climb almost like a boy; help Inna to land on
the ledge: there's room," cried Dick in desperation, peering down in awe
at Oscar, lying so still on his narrow resting-place. "Then between you
tug up the twins, and I'll go down to the shore yonder and get help and
a rope, and come down to you."

Thus instructed and admonished, Jenny took heart, and, thanks to the
knowledge of climbing trees which Dick had taught her, she scrambled up
with Inna, and planted her safe by her cousin's side. Then down she slid
again, brave little maiden, like a very boy, and tugged and twisted up
the midges, as they sobbed in their forsaken terror, Inna reaching down
and lending a helping hand.

They were safe at last, for the time being, from the clutching water,
rising and still rising below them; then Dick sped away. But what of
Oscar: was he dead? and what if help should not reach them in time, and
the tide should overwhelm them, after all?

CHAPTER XI.

THE RESCUE--CLOUDY DAYS--GOOD NEWS AT LAST.

Like the wind sped Dick--it must be now or never. The fear was upon him
that _high_ tides, at any rate, did reach the ledge of safety where the
girls were sheltering. He fancied he had seen water-marks above that.
Then about Oscar: that was a terrible height to fall. What if he was
dead? what if he should revive, and, not being sensible, fall off the
shelf of rock?--the girls could not hold him back. He must have struck
his head fearfully. "I thought, having such a craze for being a sailor,
he would have had a steadier head and more of sea-legs. I wish _I_'d
gone down, and he held the rope." Such thoughts came crowding into the
boy's head as he scudded along.

Away to the right were the fishing-boats coming in, their sails dashed
with gold and crimson, but not a craft of any kind lay to the left,
where lives, so to speak, were being weighed in the balance. At last
Dick was among the fisher-folk, telling his story, and