standing by the rail of the balcony
and untwisting the halyards that served to hoist the signal-flags to
the mast-head. Peter seemed slow at it, and Clancy called out again,
"Wait a bit, and we'll overhaul the halyards." Then, looking up and
noticing that Johnnie was standing on the edge of the roof, he added,
"And be careful and not slip on those wet planks."

"Aye, aye!" Johnnie was in high glee. "And then I can run up the flag
for the Enchantress?"

"Sure, you've been such a good boy to-day."

"M-m--but that'll be fine. I can catch the halyards from here if
you'll swing them in a little."

"All right--be careful. Here you go now."

"Let 'em come--I got----"

The first thing we knew of what had happened was when we saw Johnnie's
body come pitching down. He struck old Peter first, staggering him,
and from there he shot down out of sight.

Clancy jumped to the rail in time to save Peter from toppling over it
and just in time, as he said afterward, to see the boy splash in the
slip below. He yanked Peter to his feet, and then, without turning
around, he called out, "A couple of you run to the head of the
dock--there'll be a dory there somewhere--row 'round to the slip with
it. He'll be carried under the south side--look for him there if I'm
not there before you. Drive her now!"

"Here, Joe, wake up!" Clancy had untied the ends of the halyards after
whirling them through the block above, and now had the whole line
piled up on the balcony. He took a couple of turns around his waist,
took another turn around a cleat under the balcony rail, passed the
bight of the line to me, and said, "Here, Joe, lower me. Take hold
you, too, Peter. Pay out and not too careful. Oh, faster, man! If he
ain't dead he'll drown, maybe--if he gets sucked in and caught under
those piles it's all off."

He was sliding over the rail, the line tautening to his weight in no
time, and he talking all the time. "Lower away--lower, lower!
Faster--faster than that--he's rising again--second time--and drifting
under the wharf, sure's fate! Faster--faster--what's wrong?--what's
caught there?--let her run!"

The halyards had become fouled, and Peter was trying to clear them,
calling to Clancy to wait.

"Fouled?" roared Clancy. "Cast it off altogether. Let go altogether
and let me drop."

"We can't--the bight of it's caught around Peter's legs!" I called to
him.

"Oh, hell! take a couple of half-hitches around the cleat then--look
out now!"