he other hand. Robin met him half-way. A loud "heave ho!" and a
mighty pull brought him out of the sea, and sent him with a squash on
the boards of the raft, where he lay gripping the ropes with his hands
as with a vice.

Before his rescuers could turn to aid Sam, he stood panting beside them.

"Thank God," said Sam, "for this deliverance!"

"Amen!" was the earnest and prompt response from the others.

Yet it seemed but a temporary deliverance, for when these castaways
looked around them, they saw nothing but a heaving ocean and a darkening
sky, with the tiny raft as the only visible solid speck in all the
watery waste. Compared, however, with the extremity of danger though
which they had just passed, the little platform on which they stood
seemed to them an ample refuge--so greatly do circumstances alter our
estimate of facts!

But they had not time to think much, as may be easily understood, for a
great deal still remained to be done. Their little ark was by no means
secure. We have said that only enough of nails had been driven into it
to hold the planks to the frame-work, but not to withstand rough
treatment. Indeed, during the plunge two of the planks had been torn
off, but the binding rope held them to their places, as Sam had
foreseen.

Very little daylight now remained, so that not a moment was to be lost.

"No sign of the big raft," said Sam, stooping to unfasten the hammer and
packet of nails, after taking one quick, anxious glance round the
horizon.

"But it may be not far-off after all," said Slagg, kneeling down to aid
his comrade, while Stumps, by that time recovered, assisted Robin to
tighten the ropes that held the pork-barrel. "With such poor light it
'ud be hard to make out a flat thing like that a-kickin' in the hollows
of the seas."

"But you forget," returned Sam, "that it must be a-kickin' on the top o'
the sea as well as in the hollows. Another nail--thanks. However, I
don't expect to see it again."

"Well, now, I expects to see it in the mornin' not far-off," said Slagg.
"Is the water-cask fast, Robin?"

"All right--and the pork too."

"And the sail. Just give it an extra shove under the ropes, Robin.
We'd be badly off if we lost it."

"I don't see what good a sail can do us," said Stumps, who had now quite
recovered.

"Not _as_ a sail, Stumpy," replied Slagg, whose spirit soon recovered
elasticity, "though even in that way it may help us, but as a blanket we
shall ap