all three cast over the stupendous precipice
showed that they had little hope of ever again seeing their rugged
friend alive. But, without wasting time in idle remarks, they at once
hastened to the foot of the cliff by the shortest route they could find.
Here, after a short time, they discovered the object of their solicitude
lying, apparently dead, on his back among the rocks.

When Bumpus struck the water, after being tossed over the cliff, his
head was fortunately downward; and his skull, being the thickest and
hardest bone in his body, had withstood the terrible shock to which it
had been subjected without damage, though the brain within was, for a
time, incapacitated from doing duty. When John rose again to the
surface, after a descent into unfathomable water, he floated there in a
state of insensibility. Fortunately the wind and tide combined to wash
him to the shore, where a higher swell than usual launched him among the
coral rocks, and left him there, with only his feet in the water.

"Oh! here he is,--hurrah!" shouted Corrie, on catching sight of the
prostrate form of the seaman. But the boy's manner changed the instant
he observed the color of the man's face, from which all the blood had
been driven, leaving it like a piece of brown leather.

"He's dead," said Alice, wringing her hands in despair.

"P'raps not," suggested Poopy, with a look of deep wisdom, as she gazed
on the upturned face.

"Anyhow, we must haul him out of the water," said Corrie, whose chest
heaved with the effort he made to repress his tears.

Catching up one of Bumpus's huge hands, the boy ordered Alice to grasp
the other. Poopy, without waiting for orders, seized hold of the hair of
his head, and all three began to haul with might and main. But they
might as well have tried to pull a line-of-battle ship up on the shore.
The man's bulky form was immovable. Seeing this, they changed their
plan, and, all three grasping his legs, slewed him partially round, and
thus drew his feet out of the water.

"Now we must warm him," said Corrie, eagerly; for, the first shock of
the discovery of the supposed dead body of his friend being over, the
sanguine boy began to entertain hopes of resuscitating him. "I've heard
that the best thing for drowned people is to warm them: so, Alice, do
you take one hand and arm, Poopy will take the other, and I will take
his feet, and we'll all rub away till we bring him to; for we must, we
_shall_ bring him rou