of the wheelhouse, and lay
stretched out with his legs in the water.

He raised his head and turned his face as Jonathan got hold of him.

His emotion was too great for many words.

"And you jumped overboard to save me?" was all he said.

But his look was enough.

Johnny Liston had been swimming with one arm only thrust through the
life-buoy, as he had been obliged to quit his hold of it each time he
dived beneath the crest of a wave.

He now took it off, holding on to the wheelhouse-top, which sank down
into the water on one side under the double weight of the two lads,
elevating the other end in the air.

"Here, put this on, Dave," he said. "I brought it for you, and a
precious job I have had to reach you with it."

"But you, Jonathan--I beg your pardon, old chap, I didn't mean to call
you so. I know you don't like it."

"Never mind, Dave. If you think of me as Jonathan you may as well call
me so. I shan't mind you doing so any longer I rather like it, old
fellow, now, for our friendship will be like that of David and Jonathan
that we read of in the Bible; you know it says that `the soul of
Jonathan was knit unto the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his
own soul.' That's just how I feel."

"What a chap you are to think of that now," said David admiringly, "with
both of us bobbing about in the middle of the ocean, and the ship out of
sight. But I won't have the life-buoy; what will you do without it?"

"Bless you, I can swim like a fish, Dave, and it was more a nuisance to
me than a help; but, we can both hold on to it, you know, if it comes to
the worst. How's your leg, Dave? I thought it was broken when you got
it twisted in the wheel that time."

"Oh, it's all right," said David, kicking it out vigorously as he spoke.
"The bone isn't quite broken, but it's very sore, and I suppose I'd
have to lay up for it if I wasn't here;" and he grinned ruefully.

"Do you think the ship will pick us up?" said the other presently,
losing some of his self-possession now that he had come up with David,
and the motive for forgetting self and personal danger was wanting.

He was naturally timid unless nerved up by necessity.

"Oh, yes," said David, whose spirits rose with the occasion, and who in
the presence of his friend forgot all the peril. "Captain Markham won't
desert us, never fear; but you can't pull up a ship like a horse, you
know, Jonathan, and it will take some time for the _Sea Rover_ to