girl and her brother. The middies,
disdaining any such outside interference, calmly turned and made for
the "Farnum."

The girl proved to be unconscious, the brother more than half-dazed.

"Bring them aboard," directed Mr. Trahern, briefly.

"Now, gentlemen, you've a chance to apply what you may know about first
aid to the drowning," suggested Ensign Trahern, tersely.

Under that vigorous treatment Walter Carruthers, as the young man
afterwards declared himself to be, was quickly brought around. The
middies had much harder work in reviving the girl. Her brother sat
by watching the work.

"Elsie isn't--isn't dead, is she?" asked the brother, anxiously.

"Oh, no," replied one of the midshipmen, suspending his rescue work for
an instant. "In fact, if there were women here to do the
work--loosening her corsets, and all that sort of thing, you
know--Miss Carruthers would be sitting up in short time."

At last, the girl was made to open her eyes. She swallowed a little
coffee, too.

The "Greytown," in the meantime, had manoeuvered as close as was safe
for such a big craft to come. The ship's doctor put off in a lifeboat,
and soon declared his patient fit to be removed to the liner.

While all this was going on, Jack had slipped quietly below. He took
a brisk rub-down, donned dry clothing, and speedily appeared on deck,
looking as though nothing had happened.

"Drink some of this," ordered Eph, holding a pint cup of coffee toward
the young skipper. Jack finished it all in a few gulps. Then, as his
blood warmed, he began to smile over his late adventure.

Supported on the arm of the ship's doctor, Elsie Carruthers turned
to ask:

"Where is the midshipman who first reached me--the--the one I so
nearly drowned. I--I want to thank him, oh, so heartily, and to
apologize."

"Here he is," cried Ensign Trahern, shoving Benson forward.

"But I'm not a midshipman, nor anything else in the Navy--no such
luck," laughed Jack.

"If you're not in the Navy, you ought to be, you splendid fellow." cried
the girl, weakly, holding out her hand in sheer gratitude. "And, oh, I
was such a coward, and so unreasoning!"

"I guess anyone would be unreasoning if drowning and unable to swim,"
chuckled Jack Benson. "I know I would be."

"That's good of you," cried the girl, gratefully. "Awfully good, but
I'm not deceived. I realize, now, what a criminal ninny I was to, act
in a way that came so near to drowning both of u