nother.

Close comparison of watches gave the actual time as between nineteen and
twenty-one minutes.

"Has any one ever been saved who has been under water as long as that?"
asked Eric.

"Eighteen minutes is the longest I've ever seen," answered Johnson, the
veteran of the corps, "but, of course, there's the Mooney case."

The boy listened a moment, but no sound came from the station. It was
less nerve-racking to talk than to listen, so he went on,

"What was the Mooney case?"

"That was a Coast Guard job, in the days when the United States
Life-Saving Service was a separate bureau. It was quite a queer case in
a good many ways."

"How long was Mooney under water? Half an hour, wasn't it?" questioned
another of the men.

"Thirty-one minutes, according to general reports," Johnson replied,
"but to make sure that they weren't stretching it, the official report
made it 'twenty minutes or over.' One of my pals worked on the man."

"How was it?" queried Eric. "In a storm?"

"Beautiful sunny Fourth of July," was the reply. "And, what's more, it
was in shallow water, near shore, and the man could swim!"

"But how in the world--"

"That's exactly what I'm telling," Johnson continued, resenting the
interruption. "It was during a boat race on Point Judith Pond in Rhode
Island. My pal, who was a surfman, had been assigned to duty there.
Naturally, he was watching the races. On the other side of the pond a
small flat-bottomed skiff, carrying one sail, capsized. There were three
men in her. Streeter, that's the fellow I know, saw the boat capsize,
but he knew that the water was shallow and noted that it was near shore.
Just the same, he kept an eye on the boat. As soon as he saw two men
clinging to the sides of the skiff, he started for the scene of the
accident. He was about a third of a mile away.

"What had happened was this. When the boat capsized, the swinging boom
struck Mooney on the head, making him unconscious. He was swept under
the sail and pinned down by it. The other two men, neither of whom could
swim, managed to scramble on to the capsized skiff. They saw no sign of
Mooney, and knowing that he was a swimmer, thought he had struck out for
the shore. It wasn't until several minutes later that it occurred to one
of them that their comrade might be pinned under the sail.

"With a good deal of personal risk, for his hold was insecure and he
couldn't swim, this chap managed to get hold of the canvas and
s