it, and that he was still holding his
brother when he first came to the surface. After that he did not
remember anything till they were calling to him on the boat's bottom.
The men were sure that it was so--that because he had been true to the
last to his trust, he had been such a deadweight the first two times
he came to the surface.

And now began again the cruel, wearisome, endless drift of the
water-logged boat toward the still distant shore, lightened but little
by the loss of the loved children. There was no longer any doubt left
in their minds; unless something could be done, none of them would
possibly live to tell the tale. It was the still active mind and
indomitable courage of the skipper which found the solution. Crawling
close to Jim, he said: "There's only one chance. We must turn her
over, and get in her, or perish. I'm going to try and loose t' masts."

Swinging himself once more into the bitter-cold water, he succeeded in
finding the slight ropes which formed the stays, and though it is
almost incredible, he actually managed to cut and free them all,
before Jim hauled him back, more dead than alive, on to the boat's
bottom. At all hazards they must right the boat and climb into her.
Their plans were soon made. Tom, placed between the two men, was to do
exactly as they did. Stretching themselves out, and holding the keel
rope in their hands, they all threw themselves over on one side,
lying as nearly as possible at full length. The boat responded
instantly, and their only fear was that, as she had done before, she
might again go right over on them. But there were no masts now to hold
the wind, so she stood up on her beam-ends. As the water took the
weights of the men, it was all they could do to get her over.
Moreover, the task was rendered doubly difficult and perilous by their
exhaustion and inability to swim when the keel to which they were
holding went under water. But their agility and self-reliance, evolved
from a life next to Nature, stood them in good stead, and soon all
three were actually standing inside the water-logged boat. The oars,
lashed under the seats, were still in her, and, though almost up to
their waists in water, they began sculling and rowing as hard as their
strength and the dangerous roll of the sunken boat would permit.

Slowly the surf on the sandy beach drew near, and now, keeping her
head before the breeze, they rolled along shorewards. Again, however,
it became apparent