is eye caught the antique letters cut in the rock above him,
which no living soul but himself had ever seen so near, and the sight of
them gave him an idea.

He knew nothing of the offered reward, but he _did_ know that there were
people who thought such things valuable and paid well for copies of
them. If he escaped it might be worth something, and meanwhile it would
divert his attention and keep him from losing his nerve.

So, turning his back resolutely to the mad riot of circling waves, he
set himself to trace the letters with the point of his knife upon a
small metal match-box which he had in his pocket.

It was a long task, but he completed it at last; and then he clambered
to the top of the rock, hoping that the sight of his figure standing out
against the sky might attract the notice of some passing fisherman.

For a long time he watched and waited in vain, and he was just beginning
to think that he would have to try and save himself by swimming, after
all--for the hour of flood-tide was now drawing near and the violence of
the whirlpool was beginning to abate--when, far in the distance, he
suddenly descried a tiny white sail.

No shout could be heard at such a distance; but the ready boy unwound
the red sash from his waist and waved it over his head till his arm
ached, and, after a pause of terrible anxiety, he at length saw the boat
alter her course and stand right for him.

The skill with which the two men who handled her kept clear of the fatal
current by which Mads had been swept away, showed that both were
practical seamen, and, as he boat neared him, the boy's keen eye
recognized one of them as his own father.

When the rescuers came near enough for a shout to be heard, the father
called out to his son to climb down the crag again and stand ready to
make a plunge when he gave the word, as the boat could not come too
near, for fear of being dashed against the rock.

Just around the foot of the rock itself there was always a strong eddy,
which might suck down Mads even now, if he could not succeed in leaping
clear of it.

For ten minutes or more the two sailors kept "standing off and on," till
the fury of the whirlpool should be completely spent, while the daring
boy, perched on the lowest ledge of the rock, waited and watched for the
signal.

At length his father's powerful voice came rolling to him over the
water:

"Now!"

Mingling with the shout came the splash of Mads' plunge into the wat