reason to realise his position, he clambered further up the rocks, and
uttered an earnest "Thank God!" as he fell down exhausted beyond the
reach of the angry waves.

Soon, however, his energies began to revive, and his first impulse, when
thought and strength returned, was to rise and stagger down to the
rocks, to assist if possible, any of his shipmates who might have been
cast ashore. He found only one, who was lying in a state of
insensibility on a little strip of sand. The waves had just cast him
there, and another towering billow approached, which would infallibly
have washed him away, had not Bill rushed forward and dragged him out of
danger.

It proved to be his friend Tom Riggles. Finding that he was not quite
dead, Bill set to work with all his energy to revive him, and was so
successful that in half-an-hour the sturdy seaman was enabled to sit up
and gaze round him with the stupid expression of a tipsy man.

"Come, cheer up," said Bill, clapping him on the back; "you'll be all
right in a short while."

"Wot's to do?" said Tom, staring at his rescuer.

"You're all right," repeated Bill. "One good turn deserves another,
Tom. You saved my life a few minutes ago, and now I've hauled you out
o' the water, old boy."

The sailor's faculties seemed to return quickly on hearing this. He
endeavoured to rise, exclaiming--

"Any more saved?"

"I fear not," answered Bill sadly, shaking his head.

"Let's go see," cried Tom, staggering along the beach in search of his
shipmates; but none were found; all had perished, and their bodies were
swept away far from the spot where the ship had met her doom.

At daybreak it was discovered that the ship had struck on a low rocky
islet on which there was little or no vegetation. Here for three weeks
the two shipwrecked sailors lived in great privation, exposed to the
inclemency of the weather, and subsisting chiefly on shell-fish. They
had almost given way to despair, when a passing vessel observed them,
took them off, and conveyed them in safety to their native land.

Such was one of the incidents in our hero's career.

CHAPTER TWO.

COMMENCES THE STORY.

About the beginning of the present century, during the height of the war
with France, the little fishing village of Fairway was thrown into a
state of considerable alarm by the appearance of a ship of war off the
coast, and the landing therefrom of a body of blue-jackets. At that
time it was the barba