d and has already sank our
chum will get him all right, Josh."

"That's right," declared Josh. "George has gone and got flustrated, so
that he turned the wrong way; but if anybody can save that fellow it's
Jack Stormways. Oh! I hope he does it, because I'll take it as a good
sign that our new voyage down the coast is going to have a lucky start!"

CHAPTER II.

A GOOD OMEN FOR THE START.

Jack Stormways was always prepared. He never lost his head in an
emergency, for which more than one of his chums had had reason to be
thankful in times past. So, on the present occasion, when he saw that
the tug could not make a complete circuit against the running tide and
reach the wrecked rowboat in time to be of any assistance to the
unfortunate who had been hurled into the Delaware, Jack instantly
headed the little motor boat for the spot.

"Get up in the bow with you, Jimmy, quick now, and take the boathook
along! I'll slow down when we get there; and perhaps you can grab him
in!" the skipper called out.

Accustomed to obeying, Jimmy made haste to snatch up the implement
mentioned, and which had many the time proved its value in recovering
things that had been swept overboard in a wind storm.

Then he hurried to gain a position near the bow of the boat, where he
crouched, after making sure of his footing, so as to guard against a
shock when he clapped the boathook into the clothing of the drowning
man.

"I see him, Jack!" he bawled immediately. "He's holding to the boat,
so he is!"

"All right, Jimmy," echoed the skipper, calmly; "I glimpsed him before
you did, I reckon. Steady yourself now, and try not to make a foozle
of it, old man. There you are. Jimmy; get him!"

And Jimmy did the same, catching the coat of the man in the water with
his boathook, and holding on tenaciously. Jack, meanwhile, turned his
engine backward, so that the momentum of the boat was promptly checked.

The man had been clinging to the rapidly sinking wreckage. In another
half minute, no doubt, he would have been left without any support; and
as he did not seem able to swim a stroke, his end must have speedily
come.

Jimmy drew in with the haft of the boat-hook, until he could stretch
down and seize upon the collar of the man's coat. As the Irish lad was
brawny and nerved just then to mighty deeds, he managed to hoist the
fellow into the little motor boat.

The unlucky man was white, and pretty nearly drowned. He had ju