lowering a boat from a
ship which has begun to beat on the Black Shoal."

"Another minute and she will strike," the old sailor said.

All gazed intently at the ship. The whole population of the village
were now on the shore, and were eager to render any assistance, if
it were possible. In another minute or two, a general cry announced
that the ship had struck. Rising high on a wave, she came down with
a force which caused her mainmast at once to go over the side.
Another lift on the next sea and then, high and fast, she was
jammed on the rocks of the Black Shoal. The distance from shore was
but small, not more than three hundred yards, and the shouts of the
sailors on board could be heard in the storm.

"Why does not one of them jump over, with a rope?" Captain Drake
said, impatiently. "Are the men all cowards, or can none of them
swim? It would be easy to swim from that ship to the shore, while
it is next to impossible for anyone to make his way out, through
these breakers.

"Is there no one who can reach her from here?" he said, looking
round.

"No one among us, your honor," the old sailor said. "Few here can
keep themselves up in the water, in a calm sea; but if man or boy
could swim through that surf, it is the lad who is just coming down
from behind us. The Otter, as we call him, for he seems to be able
to live, in water, as well as on land."

The lad of whom they were speaking was a bright-faced boy, of some
fifteen years of age. He was squarely built, and his dress differed
a little from that of the fisher lads standing on the beach.

"Who is he?" asked Captain Drake.

"He is the son of the schoolmaster here, a learned man, and they do
say one who was once wealthy. The lad himself would fain go to sea,
but his father keeps him here. It is a pity, for he is a bold boy,
and would make a fine sailor."

The Otter, as he had been called, had now come down to the beach;
and, with his hands shading his eyes from the spray, sheets of
which the wind carried along with blinding force, he gazed at the
ship and the sea, with a steady intentness.

"I think I can get out to her," he said, to the fishermen.

"It is madness, boy," Captain Drake said. "There are few men,
indeed, so far as I know, in these climes--I talk not of the
heathens of the Western Islands--who could swim through a breaking
sea, like yonder."

"I think I can do it," the boy said, quietly. "I have been out in
as heavy seas before, and if on