osing hope when once more the captain's body came to the surface
and Dick seized it. He started for the dingy with his burden, but
was fearing he would never make it, when he found Johnny beside him,
saying:

"Here, you're played out. Put your hand on my shoulder. I can take
care of the cap'n, too."

"All right, you take care of the captain. I can get back to the
dingy."

When they reached the dingy the water had become so much smoother
that they were able to rest while clinging to the side of the dingy
and holding the captain's face out of water.

"Don't 'spose Cap'n's dead, do yer?" said Johnny.

"Don't think so, but we've got to get this dingy bailed out and get
him in it, mighty soon. Then I know what to do to bring him to, if
there's life in him. Lend me your cap and I'll bail out the dingy."

"That ain't the way we bail boats down here," said Johnny, who got
into the dingy and began to rock it. In about a minute he had rocked
it nearly dry and finished the job with his cap. Dick then climbed
into the dingy and the boys pulled the body of the captain beside it
and, bearing down on the gunwale until water began to come in,
dragged it aboard, half filling the dingy as they did it. As Johnny
began to bail again a feeble voice beside him whispered:

"What you fellers doin'?"

The captain soon got stronger, and said he was all right but for a
headache which was splitting his skull. He tried to rise, but fell
back in a faint, and Dick told him he must lie still and give
orders, which Johnny and he would obey. Then Dick stood on a thwart
and studied the water as far as he could see, hoping to find an oar.
He saw a mast, a hatch cover and some broken fragments from the
_Etta_ and at last the blade from the oar which the captain had
broken. Johnny and he paddled with their hands until they recovered
the oar blade. As a light breeze had sprung up from the south, which
was causing them to drift northward, they headed south, paddling and
watching by turns, until they found the lost oar. Then Dick, resting
the oar in the sculling hole, called on the captain for orders.

"Better strike out due east and make for Nor'-West Cape. That's the
nearest land and we're liable to be struck by a squall 'most any
minute. Then there's a cocoanut grove at the Cape and you'll be
thirsty by the time you get there."

"Gee!" said Dick, "I'm thirsty now. Wish you hadn't spoken of it."

Dick put his weight on the oar and as he swung b