ound to say it would have
disagreed with him as had swallowed it. Here, somebody--who's got a
match? Mine'll be all wet. Strike a light, will you; I want to see if
he's beginning to wink yet."

A match was struck, and as it burned steadily in the still air a faint
light was shown from the schooner far, far away.

"See there, my lads? He's winking his eyes like fun; but go on pumping
slow and steady to keep him breathing--mustn't let him slip through your
fingers now. Pull away there, my lads; put your backs into it. My
word, there's a stiff current running here!"

"Yes," said Poole; "we are much farther away than I thought."

"But what an escape!" cried Fitz.

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"Look yonder; that streak of light gliding along and making the water
flash. You can just make out now and then something dark cutting
through it."

"Ah, that's plain enough," said the boatswain; "a jack shark's back fin,
and a big un too."

"Lucky for you both," said Poole, "that you are safe on board."

"Lucky for him, you mean," said the boatswain. "That knife of mine's as
sharp as hands can make it. If I had let him have it he'd have shown
white at daylight, floating wrong side up."

"If you had hit him," said Fitz.

"If I'd hit him, sir! A man couldn't miss a thing like that. But of
course there wouldn't have been time to pick my spot."

"Oh!" ejaculated Fitz, in a long-drawn sigh. "Seems to turn me quite
over! That's about the most horrible cry I know--Man overboard! It's
bad enough in the daylight, but on a night like this--"

"Ah, it would make you feel a bit unked, my lad," said the boatswain,
"if you had time to think; but it was a fine night for the job. I have
been out in a boat after one of these silly chaps as didn't mind where
he was going, when you couldn't make out his bearings at all. To-night
the sea brimed so that you could tell where he was at every move.
Splendid night for the job!"

"And it was a very brave act, Butters," said Poole warmly.

"What was, sir?"

"Why, to jump overboard on a dark night, not knowing whether you would
ever reach the schooner again."

"Tchah! Nonsense, sir! You shouldn't talk stuff like that to a wet
man! It was all charnsh, of course; but a sailor's life is all charnsh
from the moment he steps aboard. We are charnshing now whether they'll
pick us up again, for they can't see us, and we don't seem to be making
no headway at all in this current. He