himself free and was striking strongly upward,
with one hand firmly grasping Mr Forester Dale by the collar of his
coat.

Bob rose to the surface within a few feet of Mr Bowles' still floating
body; and with a violent effort he soon succeeded in reaching it,
knowing that, encumbered as he was, he would have to trust the launch to
come to him, he could never reach her. As he seized his staunch friend
and superior officer by the hair and twisted him over on his back he
heard a wild cheer, instantly followed by a cheery shout of "Look out
for the line, Bob!"

As the sound reached him the rope came flying over him, striking him
sharply in the face. He seized it with his teeth; and then heard the
skipper's voice say--

"Haul in handsomely now, and take care you don't jerk; he has gripped it
with his teeth."

A very few seconds afterwards, which, however appeared an age to Bob,
and he found himself floating alongside the launch, where he was
speedily relieved of his two inanimate charges, and finally dragged on
board himself, half-drowned, with about ten feet of water in his hold as
he expressed it, but full of pluck as ever.

The first business claiming attention was of course that of endeavouring
to restore consciousness to the inanimate bodies of Mr Dale and the
chief mate; and this was at length achieved. Mr Dale was the first to
come round; and as soon as he was so far recovered as to be able to
speak he was stowed away in the men's sleeping berth forward, and made
as comfortable as circumstances would permit. He lay there, warmly
wrapped up, bemoaning for a time his hard fate in ever having come to
sea, but at length the spirits which had been liberally poured down his
throat took effect, and he dropped off to sleep.

Mr Bowles' case was somewhat more serious, he having received a violent
blow on the head from some of the floating wreckage, just after the
foundering of the pinnace. The blow had inflicted a long scalp-wound
from which the blood flowed freely; and when he at length revived he
seemed quite dazed and light-headed, so that it was impossible to get a
coherent reply to any of the questions put to him. He too was at last
stowed away forward; and Bob, who was somewhat exhausted by his
exertions in the water, and scarcely fit for other work, was detailed to
watch by and attend to the two invalids.

The launch had in the meantime been once more got before the wind, and
was again flying to leeward un