p to the bow of the boat, so as to give himself as long
a distance as possible to drift, he prepared for the swim.

CHAPTER V.

THE RESCUE.

JACK was a good swimmer, but he had never swum in a sea like this.

"If I raise my arms, uncle, pull in at once. If I see I cannot reach the
spar I sha'n't exhaust myself by going on, but shall come back and take
a fresh start. Let me have plenty of rope."

"All right, Jack! we won't check you."

Jack took a header, and swimming hard under water came up some distance
from the boat.

"He will do it," Tom shouted in Ben's ear. "He is nigh half-way between
this and the rope already."

It was, however, a more difficult task than it looked. Had the water
been smooth it would have been easy for Jack to swim across the tide to
the spar before he was swept below it, but he found at once that it was
impossible to swim fast, so buffeted and tossed was he by the sea, while
he was almost smothered by the spray carried by the wind to the top of
the waves. He trod water for a moment with his back to the wind, took a
deep breath, and then dived again. When he came up he was delighted to
see that he was as near as possible in the line of the spar, which was
towing but a few yards from him. He ceased swimming, and a moment later
the tide swept him down upon it.

He had before starting fastened a piece of lashing three feet long to
the loop round his chest, and the moment he reached the spar he lashed
this firmly round the rope, and passing one arm round the spar lifted
the other above his head. In a moment he felt the strain of the rope
round his chest, and this soon tightened above the water. But Jack felt
that the strain of pulling not only him but the spar through the water
might be too much for it, and rather than run the risk he again waved
his hand, and as soon as the line slacked he fastened it to the rope
from the wreck, loosened the hitches round the spar and allowed the
latter to float away. He was half drowned by the time he reached the
side of the bawley, for he had been dragged in the teeth of the wind and
tide, and each wave had swept clean over his head.

[Illustration: THE RESCUE OF THE PASSENGERS FROM THE WRECK]

At first those on board pulled but slowly, in order to enable him to
swim over the top of the waves. But the force of the spray in his face
was so great that he could not breathe, and he waved to them that they
must draw him in at once. As soon as they