h could
go. Yet he swam on, fighting against the heartbreaking thought that
his companion had perhaps gone "down to the dim sea-line" in very
truth. She had been so brave, so strong. She had buoyed up his
courage when it had been fainting; she had fought splendidly against
the last terrible inertia of exhaustion.

"Courage!" he told himself. "We must make the land!" But it took a
stupendous effort. His strokes became unequal, some of them feeble and
ineffective; his muscles ached with the strain; now and then a strange
whirring and dizziness in his head caused him to wonder dimly whether
he were above or below water. He could no longer swim with closed
lips, but constantly threw his head back with the gasp that marks the
spent runner.

Holding Agatha Redmond in front of him, with her head well above the
water and her body partly supported by the life preserver, he swam
sometimes with one hand, sometimes only with his legs. He dared not
stop now, lest he be too late in reaching land or wholly unable to
regather his force. The dizziness increased, and a sharp pain in his
eyeballs recurred again and again. He could no longer see the land; it
seemed to him that it was blood, not brine, that spurted from nose and
mouth; but still he swam on, holding the woman safe. He made a
gigantic effort to shout, though he could scarcely hear his own voice.
Then he fixed his mind solely on his swimming, counting one stroke
after another, like a man who is coaxing sleep.

How long he swam thus, he did not know; but after many strokes he was
conscious of a sense of happiness that, after all, it wasn't necessary
to reach land or to struggle any more. Rest and respite from
excruciating effort were to be had for the taking--why had he withstood
them so long? The sea rocked him, the surge filled his ears, his limbs
relaxed their tension. Then it was that a strong hand grasped him, and
a second later the same hand dealt him a violent blow on the face.

He had to begin the intolerable exertion of swimming again, but he no
longer had a burden to hold safe; there was no burden in sight.
Half-consciously he felt the earth once more beneath his feet, but he
could not stand. He fell face forward into the water again at his
first attempt; and again the strong hand pulled him up and half-carried
him over some slimy rocks. It was an endless journey before the strong
hand would let him sit or lie down, but at last he was allowed to dr