had become insensible some time before he had done so himself. The
sailors rubbed their chests and hands, and at last both showed signs of
returning animation.

"That was a close shave, Jack," the coast-guardsman who was at the helm
said. "It was lucky I made you out with my glass when I did. It was
touch and go; I saw you trying to get them on their backs. If they had
kept quiet you would have managed it; but drowning people never will
keep quiet."

They were now running up the Ray in pursuit of the boat, which had
drifted into shallower water near the end of the island, and here the
grapnel had brought it up. When they got up to it, the grapnel was
raised and brought into the stern of the boat, and the coast-guard boat
laid her course close-hauled for Leigh, towing the other behind her.

Before they arrived at the slip the other two boys were both able to sit
up. They would have taken their boat up beyond the village, but one of
the fishermen said, "You go home and change; you have done quite enough
for to-day. Tom and I will take the boat up for you."

"That has been a lesson to me I shall not forget," Bill said as they
walked along. "You saved our lives, Jack, there is not much doubt about
that."

"Oh, I expect we should all have been fished out anyhow!" Jack replied.

"No, we should not, Jack. Anyhow, not alive. I thought just at first you
were going to keep us up pretty easy, and then young Joe twisted round
and got hold of you, and we all went down together. But I could feel
then that somehow you were keeping us up, and I tried not to catch hold
of your legs."

"You did not, Bill. I was able to use them just at first, and then,
somehow, Joe got hold of them. However, we all kept together, that was a
good thing. If we had separated, I don't suppose they would have got us
all."

Fortunately the news of the danger Jack had run had not reached his
mother, for she had been engaged in the back-room washing, and Lily had
gone up to school.

At the first alarm many people had run down to the shore; the officer of
the coast-guard with his glass had reported what was going on, and up to
the last moment it had been believed that the boat would get to them in
time, and there had been a gasp of dismay as he suddenly exclaimed,
"They are down! The boat is only a few lengths away," he went on; "I
expect they will get them. One of the men is standing up in the bow
ready to jump."

A half-minute later he exclaimed, "