hile lashed to the mast.

We--that is to say, Mrs Vansittart, Kennedy, and I--were still standing
together under the lee of the wheelhouse, discussing the weather
generally, and the probable duration of the gale in particular, when the
boy Julius came up from below, emerging from the companion way at the
precise moment when the ship, with a terrific lee roll, was climbing to
the summit of an exceptionally heavy sea. Precisely how it happened I
could not possibly say, it occurred so suddenly, and moreover I only saw
the last part of it; but I imagine that the lad must have lost, or
inadvertently released, his hold upon the side of the companion at the
critical moment when the velocity of the ship's roll was at its highest.
Be that as it may, Julius no sooner stepped out on deck than he went
with a run straight to the lee rail of the poop, fetched up against it
with a force that must have knocked the breath out of him, and then--
although the rail was breast-high to him--in some inconceivable fashion
seemed to lurch forward upon it, turn a complete somersault over it, and
plunge headlong into the sea. It was Mrs Vansittart's shriek of
"Julius!" and her look of petrified horror, that caused me to wheel
round, and I was just in time to see the lad go whirling over the rail.

One's thoughts move with lightning-like rapidity in moments of
emergency, and as I saw the boy going I thought, "Kennedy is no good;
those heavy sea boots of his would drag him down and sink him in a few
seconds; I must go myself!" And as the thought flashed through my brain
I tore off my oilskin jacket and, shouting to Kennedy, "Lifebuoy--bend
to signal halyards!" made a dash for the rail, while Mrs Vansittart's
shrieks lent wings to my feet.

As I reached the rail the ship topped the surge, which went rushing and
roaring away beneath her and to leeward in a tremendous boil of foam, in
the rear of which there was a space of almost glass-smooth
indigo-coloured water, down through which I thought I saw something that
might be the boy's body. Without hesitating an instant I vaulted the
rail, landing upon the curved turtle-back outboard, flung my hands above
my head, and plunged straight for the spot where, a moment before, I
thought I had seen the lad's body.

I went deep, kicking and striking out vigorously as I felt the water
close about me, for the thought occurred to me that if the boy had
really hurt himself badly when colliding with the rail,