difficulty in getting up the side now for it was
almost flush with the water.

"Come on board, sir!" said he jokingly, touching his forehead with his
finger, his cap having been washed off as he dived.

"My poor boy!" cried Captain Lennard, overcome with emotion at the
gallant lad's devotion; "you have only sacrificed two lives instead of
one! Why did you not stay in the boat?"

"Because," began Teddy; but ere he could complete the sentence there was
a violent rush of air upwards from the hold, and a loud explosion, the
decks having burst.

At the same time, the ship made a deep bend forwards.

Then, her bows rose high in the air above the waves as the stern sank
with a gurgling moan; and, the next moment, Teddy and Captain Lennard
were drawn below the surface with the vessel as she foundered!

Teddy was nearly suffocated; but, holding his breath bravely, as Jupp
had taught him, and striking downwards with all his force, he presently
got his head above water, inhaling the delicious air of heaven, which he
thought would never more have entered his nostrils.

When he came to himself, he saw the captain's body floating face
downwards amongst a lot of broken planks and other debris of the wreck,
by some fragment of which he must have been struck as the _Greenock_
foundered.

To swim forwards and seize poor Captain Lennard, turning him face
upwards again and supporting his head above the water, was the work of a
moment only with Teddy; and then, holding on to a piece of broken spar,
he awaited the coming up of the launch, which, now that all danger was
over from the eddy rowed up to the scene, when he and the captain were
lifted on board--all hands enthusiastic about the courageous action of
the little hero, and none more so than Captain Lennard when he recovered
his consciousness.

"You have saved my life!" he said. "Had you not been close by to turn
me over when I rose to the surface I should have been drowned before the
boat could have come up. I will never forget it!"

Nor did he, as Teddy's subsequent advancement showed; but, there was no
time now for congratulation or passing compliments.

The peril of those preserved from the wreck was not yet over, for, they
were thousands of miles away from land floating on the wide ocean!

Hailing the jolly-boat, Captain Lennard announced what he thought the
proper course should be.

"The best place for us to make for now is Valparaiso," he said; "and if
we stee