urgled "Help!" being heard by those in
the boat as he went down.

The Eel dived.

Eric, who had followed his chum headforemost into the water hardly half
a second later, swam around waiting for the other to come up. In three
quarters of a minute the Eel rose to the surface with his living burden.
Suddenly, with a twist, almost entirely unconscious, the drowning man
grappled his rescuer. Eric knew that his chum was an adept at all the
various ways of "breaking away" from these grips, a necessary part of
the training of every life-saver, but he swam close up in case he might
be able to help.

"Got him all right?" he asked.

"He's got me!" grunted the Eel, disgustedly.

"P'raps I'd better give you a hand to break," suggested the boy,
reaching over with the intention of helping his friend, for the
struggling swimmer had secured a tight grip around the Eel's neck. The
life-saver, however, covering the nose and mouth of the half-drowned man
with one hand, pulled him close with the other and punched him
vigorously in the wind with his knee.

"Now he'll be good," said the Eel, grinning as well as he could with a
mouth full of water. He spat out the brine, shook the water out of his
eyes, and putting his hands on either side of the drowning man's head,
started for the shore. Using a powerful "scissors" stroke, the Eel made
quick time, though he seemed to be taking it in leisurely fashion. Eric,
although a good swimmer, had all he could do to keep up.

"How do you think he is?" the lad asked.

"Oh, he'll come around all right," the Eel replied, "I don't believe
he's swallowed such an awful lot of water. I guess he's been able to
swim a bit."

The rescued man was a good weight and not fat, so that he floated deep.
The sea was choppy, too, with a nasty little surf on the beach. But the
Eel brought the sufferer in with the utmost ease.

As soon as they reached shore, Eric grabbed the drowning man's feet
while the Eel took him by the shoulders and lifted him on a stretcher
which two other members of the Volunteer Corps had brought. As soon as
the rescued man was placed on this, the bearers started at a quick pace
for the life-saving station, and artificial respiration was begun.

In spite of the fact that the boy had seen dozens of half-drowned
persons brought back to consciousness, the process never lost to him its
half-terrible fascination. He always felt the lurking danger and he had
been well-trained never to forget