the wind and sea, propelled by
the strong arms of eight of the stoutest oarsmen in the ship. At
length, however, she was near enough to enable me to discern the bow man
standing up, one hand shading his eyes, and the other grasping a boat-
hook. Presently a hail came down upon the wind toward us from the boat,
and directly afterwards another. I was by this time too weak to reply;
and could only hope that they would pull on until close enough to see
us; to my inexpressible horror, however, when some seven or eight
lengths away, the boat's head swerved sharply aside, and the craft
darted off upon a course at right angles to her former one. Then indeed
I uttered a shriek loud enough to awake the seven sleepers, and
immediately went under. I thought it was now all over with us both; but
the love of life is strong, especially in the young, and a convulsive
struggle brought us once more to the surface; but, blinded with salt
water, and with my senses fast leaving me, I no longer looked round for
the boat, but battled desperately, though more than half unconsciously,
for life; still retaining, with the tenacious grasp of the drowning, my
hold upon my companion. I at length heard faintly, and as though in a
dream, a voice saying, "There they are! port, sir, hard!" and then all
became an utter blank.

The first indication of returning consciousness was the sound of the
surgeon's voice saying, "All right! he is coming to; and we shall save
him yet."

"Thank God for that!" presently exclaimed another voice, which I
recognised as the skipper's; "I would not have lost the lad for the
worth of all that I possess. I never saw a more plucky thing in all my
life; and, if he lives, he will grow up to be an ornament to the
service."

At this point I opened my eyes, and found those of the speaker bent upon
me with an expression of deep solicitude. I furthermore found that I
had been stripped of my wet clothing, and was lying in the captain's own
cot, with the doctor and one of the seamen rubbing my limbs and body so
vigorously with their bare hands, in the endeavour to restore a brisk
circulation, that I seemed to be in imminent danger of being flayed
alive.

"How do you feel now, my boy?" inquired the skipper, as he bent over the
side of the cot, and laid his hand kindly upon my own.

"Very much better, sir, thank you," I replied; though, to tell the
truth, I was at that moment enduring the most acute pain in every nerve
o