hip.

The wind had been gradually increasing during all these proceedings, and
although no time had been lost, and the vessel had been immediately
brought up into the wind, Ailie and Glynn were left struggling in the
dark sea a long way behind ere the quarter-boat could be lowered; and
now that it was fairly afloat, there was still the danger of its failing
to hit the right direction of the objects of which it was in search.

After leaping over the stern, Glynn Proctor, the moment he rose to the
surface, gave a quick glance at the ship, to make sure of her exact
position, and then struck out in a straight line astern, for he knew
that wherever Ailie fell, there she would remain struggling until she
sank. Glynn was a fast and powerful swimmer. He struck out with
desperate energy, and in a few minutes the ship was out of sight behind
him. Then he paused suddenly, and letting his feet sink until he
attained an upright position, trod the water and raised himself
breast-high above the surface, at the same time listening intently, for
he began to fear that he might have overshot his mark. No sound met his
straining ear save the sighing of the breeze and the ripple of the water
as it lapped against his chest. It was too dark to see more than a few
yards in any direction.

Glynn knew that each moment lost rendered his chance of saving the child
terribly slight. He shouted "Ailie!" in a loud, agonising cry, and swam
forward again with redoubled energy, continuing the cry from time to
time, and raising himself occasionally to look round him. The
excitement of his mind, and the intensity with which it was bent on the
one great object, rendered him at first almost unobservant of the flight
of time. But suddenly the thought burst upon him that fully ten minutes
or a quarter of an hour had elapsed since Ailie fell overboard, and that
no one who could not swim could exist for half that time in deep water.
He shrieked with agony at the thought, and, fancying that he must have
passed the child, he turned round and swam desperately towards the point
where he supposed the ship lay. Then he thought, "What if I have turned
just as I was coming up with her?" So he turned about again, but as the
hopelessness of his efforts once more occurred to him, he lost all
presence of mind, and began to shout furiously, and to strike out wildly
in all directions.

In the midst of his mad struggles his hand struck an object floating
near him