There aren't any accidents there,
except when the beach is crowded, and that's just for Saturdays and
Sundays, mainly, and a couple of months in the summer."

"That may all be true, but when an accident does occur, experts are
needed in a hurry. Amateur work doesn't amount to much as a rule."

"This isn't amateur!" protested the boy. "Why, Father, do you know what
a chap has to do before he can even enlist?"

"No," the other replied. "I never heard the requirements, or if I did,
I've forgotten them. What are they?"

"A fellow who applies has got to show that he can swim at least a
hundred yards in good style, and twenty yards of that must be in coat,
trousers, and shoes. He's got to be able to dive and bring up something
from the bottom, at a depth of ten feet. He's got to swim twenty yards
carrying a person his own weight and show that he knows three different
ways of carrying a drowning person in deep water. He's got to show that
he can do at least three of the ways to 'break' death-grips made by a
drowning person. And besides that, he's got to know all about first aid,
especially resuscitation."

"You mean that an applicant has to pass that test before entering the
volunteers at all?"

"He sure has, and he's got to show that he can do it easily, too!"

"That's good and stiff," said the old inspector. "You can do all that,
Eric, eh?"

The boy smiled.

"I've got a Proficiency Medal, Father," he said, not a little proudly.

"What's that for?"

"That's the test to show you're really A 1. To get that medal you've got
to swim under water for over thirty-five feet, you've got to know all
the 'breaks,' and you've got to show a 'break' to be made by a third
party if you're rescuing a rescuer who has got into the clutch of a
drowning man in any way that he can't shake loose. Besides that, you've
got to swim back-stroke sixty feet with the hands clear out of water,
and sixty feet side, using one arm only. Then, just to show that it
isn't exhibition stuff but the real goods in training for life-saving,
you're made to swim sixty feet fully dressed and back forty feet, on the
return carrying a man your own weight; dropping him, you have to start
right off for another sixty feet out and forty feet back, this time
carrying the man back by a different method."

"It's real swimming!" exclaimed the veteran of the sea.

"You bet," said Eric, "and I'm not nearly through. There's another
sixty-foot swim, and at the end of