was going to say "breath," but before the word could be uttered
Aleck, who had drawn himself up to stand erect, felt his feet gliding
from under him, and it was only by a violent effort that he escaped
falling heavily upon the weed-covered rock. As it was he came down with
a tremendous splash into the water, going head first in a sharp incline
down and down, while, obeying his first impulse, he struck out sharply.

The middy was about to obey his first impulse too, and that was not to
pay out, but begin to haul his comrade back. His hands tightened round
the line, but as he awoke to the fact that it was gliding through his
hands in obedience to the regular pulsation of the movements of a
swimmer, he felt that all must be right, and waited while, foot by foot,
the rope glided on and the transparent water grew more and more agitated
and strange to see.

Once he fancied he could clearly make out Aleck's steadily swimming
figure, but directly after he knew it was a great, waving, flag-like
mass of weed fronds, and he uttered an impatient gasp and turned cold.

"He couldn't have got his breath for the dive," he said to himself, "and
the current must be taking him helplessly away. Half the line must have
run out, and perhaps he's insensible. No; that means swimming, for it
goes in jerks, and--he has stopped. He must be through. Hooray! Well
done, old--oh, that's the signal to pull him back!"

It was surely enough, and the middy began at once to haul in, and then
the cold feeling became a chill of horror, for he had drawn the rope
quite tight at the second haul, and it was perfectly evident that the
swimmer had signalled because in some way he was caught fast.

What to do?

The middy was energetic enough, and in those perilous moments, full of
horror for his companion's sake, he hauled till he dared pull no more
for fear that the rope should part, and, obeying now a sudden thought,
he relaxed the strain, and the rope seemed to be snatched back towards
Aleck.

"That can't be a signal," he said to himself, in despair; but he began
to haul again, recovered the line lost, and to his intense delight he
found that the swimmer was once more free, and that he was drawing him
rapidly back to where he stood. The lad's action was as rapid now as he
could pass hand over hand, and in a very short space of time he had the
poor fellow close up to the rock edge, and then, taking hold of the rope
where it passed round Aleck's c