en mouth,
and I felt my cap torn from my head. Down, down I sank, struggling,
yet with my eyes open, while the water became dark around me and I
was drawn along by the whirling undercurrent.

I raised my hands above my head and tried to regain the surface and
get breath; but it was many moments before my eyes were gladdened
at seeing the water grow greener and brighter. Then I could see the
sunlight above me glancing and dancing in the surrounding water;
then at last I felt that my hands had reached the surface, my head
rose up into the open air, where I gasped and got breath. I swam
about for a little, thinking only of keeping myself above water,
but when I got my full breath again and found that I could keep
afloat without great effort, I looked around me and remembered what
had happened.

There was the ship, the Lydia, lying athwart the channel, ten
fathoms or so away from me, and I could see the St. Magnus beating
down towards me. I looked for my father and my uncle Mansie and the
other men, but could see none of them anywhere. Probably my own
lightness, and the fact that I was not, like them, encumbered with
heavy sea boots, had aided me in coming up to the surface before
them. But I could not have helped them, even had they stood in need
of such help as mine, and I knew that they were all good swimmers,
so I turned round on my breast with the current and continued
swimming towards the Curlew, which now floated, bottom up, to the
seaward side of me.

The St. Magnus very soon came within hail, drifting with the rapid
stream. The men were at the oars, though they only used them to
steady the boat and hold her back.

Just as they were abreast of me the man at the bow cried out,
"There's old Slater! Port your helm!" and the boat's head was
turned away from my direction, for they had not seen me.

As she slewed round, however, Tom Kinlay. who sat at the stern,
caught sight of me swimming close under the boat's side. So near to
him was I, indeed, that by stretching out his arm he might have
caught my upraised hand. Our eyes met, and a smile of triumph
played about his lips. The boat was rowed away from me without his
uttering a word or once attempting to save me.

I kept steadily on my way, swimming towards the Curlew, nor did I
once look round again for the St. Magnus.

The upturned boat was floating outward with the stream, and it took
me a very long time and a strong swim, that tired my arms more than
I can