tack
about before she can fetch us. I wish, however, old chap, we had a
little better raft than this to support us; the wheelhouse-top is hardly
big enough for two, even with the buoy, which, though it can keep us
afloat, won't raise us out of the water as we want."

"Why, I passed some wreckage a few yards off before I reached you," said
his friend.

"Did you?" said David. "That must have been the gangway and part of the
bulwarks that came away with me. I wish we had the lot here."

"Do you?" said Jonathan, as we must now call him, "then I'll soon fetch
them," striking out as he spoke.

"Take care," said David; "and pray take the buoy with you."

But, the sea saved Jonathan the trouble of leaving his friend, for the
very pieces of timber of which he had spoken made their appearance at
that moment, floating down towards them from the summit of a wave, in
whose valley they were; and Jonathan swam beyond them and pushed them
before him till they were alongside the wheelhouse-top.

There was plenty of material to form a substantial raft with the
addition of what they already had; and as Jonathan drew up the heavy
mass alongside, David gave a shout of joy.

"Why," he exclaimed, "here is the cleat of the signal halliards come
away with a piece of the taffrail, and we'll have enough rope to form
all the lashings we want. Isn't that lucky?"

The young middy was handy enough in sailors' ways through his two years'
experience of the sea; and--Jonathan aiding him under his direction--in
a short time the loose timbers were lashed firmly together as a
framework, with the roof of the wheelhouse fastened on the top, forming
altogether a substantial platform, on which the two boys found
themselves elevated a clear foot or more out of the water, and free from
the cold wash of the waves, which was beginning to turn them blue.

"There," exclaimed David, "now we're comfortable, and can wait in
patience till the ship overhauls us; she can't be long now."

Watching with eager eyes they saw the _Sea Rover_ coming towards them,
after a long, long while, as it seemed to them; but ere she had reached
them, in spite of their shouts and hand-wavings, which they fancied must
have been seen and heard on board, she went round on the other tack, and
disappeared from their view, to their bitter disappointment and grief.

It was David now who was hopeful still. Jonathan seemed to have lost
all that courage which had inspired him to le