pinning away like a capsized nine-pin.

There was a short laugh, as well as a cheer at this; but next moment all
were gazing at the sea in breathless anxiety, for Brooke had rushed deep
into the surf. He paused one moment, as the great wave curled over him,
then went through it head-first with such force that he shot waist-high
out of the sea on the other side. His exceptional swimming-powers now
served him well, for his otter-like rapidity of action enabled him to
avoid the crushing billows either by diving through them at the right
moment, or holding back until they fell, and left him only the mad
swirling foam to contend with. This last was bad enough, but here his
great muscular strength and his inexhaustible caloric, with his
cork-like power of flotation, enabled him to hold his own without
exhaustion until another opportunity of piercing an unbroken wave
offered. Thus he gradually forced his way through and beyond the worst
breakers, which are always those nearest shore. Had any one been close
to him, and able calmly to watch his movements, it would have been seen
that, great as were the youth's powers, he did not waste them in useless
battling with a force against which no man could effectively contend;
that, with a cool head, he gave way to every irresistible force,
swimming for a moment, as it were, with the current--or, rather,
floating easily in the whirlpools--so as to conserve his strength; that,
ever and anon, he struck out with all his might, rushing through foam
and wave like a fish, and that, in the midst of it all, he saw and
seized the brief moments in which he could take a gasping inhalation.

Those who watched him with breathless anxiety on shore saw little of all
this as they paid out the line or perched themselves on tiptoe on the
few boulders that here and there strewed the sand.

"Haul him back!" shouted the man who was farthest out on the line.
"He's used up!"

"No, he's not, I know him well!" roared Shank Leather. "Pay out, men--
pay out line!"

"Ay, ease away," said Grinder, in a thunderous growl. "He's a rigler
walrus, he is. Niver see'd sich a feller since I left the southern
seas. Ease away, boys."

A cheer followed his remark, for at that moment it was seen that our
hero had reached the tail of the eddy which was caused by the hull of
the wreck, and that one of her crew had darted from the cover of the
vessel's bulwarks and taken shelter under the stump of the mainmast.
Hi