ther in orderly procession, each as clear and distinct as a painted
picture, and he was watching them with absorbed, painless interest, when
something dark came across his vision; he felt himself grasped firmly
and drawn swiftly through the water, and the next thing he knew, he was
in the light and air again, and was being handed up to the top of the
wharf by men who passed him carefully from one to the other. In the very
nick of time rescue had come, and Bert was brought back to life.

Now, who was his rescuer, and what took place while Bert was struggling
for his life in the cold, dark water? The instant he disappeared the
boys shouted and shrieked in such a way as to bring the whole crew of
the _Santa Maria_ to the bulwarks, over which they eagerly peered, not
understanding what was the matter. Frank, who was in a frenzy of anxiety
and alarm, tried hard to explain to them; but his efforts were
unavailing until the reappearance of Bert's head made the matter plain
at once, and then he thought they would, of course, spring to the
rescue. But they did not. They looked at one another, and jabbered
something unintelligible, but not one of them moved, though Frank seized
the liveliest of them by the arm, and, pointing to the place where Bert
vanished, again indicated, by unmistakable gestures, what he wanted him
to do. The man simply shook his head and moved away. He either could
not swim, or did not think it worth while to risk his precious life in
trying to rescue one of the foreign urchins that had been bothering the
_Santa Maria_ of late. Had Bert's life depended upon these men, it might
have been given up at once.

But there was other help at hand. John Connors, the good-natured Irish
storekeeper, by whose sufferance the boys were permitted to make a
playground of the wharf, had heard their frantic cries, although he was
away up in one of the highest flats of the farthest store. Without
stopping to see what could be the matter, Connors leaped down the long
flights of stairs at a reckless rate, and ran toward the shrieking boys.

"Bert's overboard--save him!" they cried, as he burst into their midst.

"Where?" he asked, breathlessly, while he flung off his boots.

"There--just there," they replied, pointing to where Bert had last been
seen.

Balancing himself for an instant on the end of the stringer, Connors,
with the spring of a practised swimmer, dived into the depths and
disappeared; while the boys, in the sil