Part 63 (2/2)
The mighty ma.s.s of water fell in thunder on the beach, but beyond appeared a yellow head, one arm out-reaching, and a portion of a shoulder. Only a few strokes was he able to make ere he was compelled to dive through another breaker. This was the battle--to win seaward against the sweep of the sh.o.r.eward hastening sea. Each time he dived and was lost to view Saxon caught her breath and clenched her hands.
Sometimes, after the pa.s.sage of a breaker, they could not find him, and when they did he would be scores of feet away, flung there like a chip by a smoke-bearded breaker. Often it seemed he must fail and be thrown upon the beach, but at the end of half an hour he was beyond the outer edge of the surf and swimming strong, no longer diving, but topping the waves. Soon he was so far away that only at intervals could they find the speck of him. That, too, vanished, and Saxon and Billy looked at each other, she with amazement at the swimmer's valor, Billy with blue eyes flas.h.i.+ng.
”Some swimmer, that boy, some swimmer,” he praised. ”Nothing chicken-hearted about him.--Say, I only know tank-swimmin', an'
bay-swimmin', but now I'm goin' to learn ocean-swimmin'. If I could do that I'd be so proud you couldn't come within forty feet of me. Why, Saxon, honest to G.o.d, I'd sooner do what he done than own a thousan'
farms. Oh, I can swim, too, I'm tellin' you, like a fish--I swum, one Sunday, from the Narrow Gauge Pier to Sessions' Basin, an' that's miles--but I never seen anything like that guy in the swimmin' line.
An' I'm not goin' to leave this beach until he comes back.--All by his lonely out there in a mountain sea, think of it! He's got his nerve all right, all right.”
Saxon and Billy ran barefooted up and down the beach, pursuing each other with brandished snakes of seaweed and playing like children for an hour. It was not until they were putting on their shoes that they sighted the yellow head bearing sh.o.r.eward. Billy was at the edge of the surf to meet him, emerging, not white-skinned as he had entered, but red from the pounding he had received at the hands of the sea.
”You're a wonder, and I just got to hand it to you,” Billy greeted him in outspoken admiration.
”It was a big surf to-day,” the young man replied, with a nod of acknowledgment.
”It don't happen that you are a fighter I never heard of?” Billy queried, striving to get some inkling of the ident.i.ty of the physical prodigy.
The other laughed and shook his head, and Billy could not guess that he was an ex-captain of a 'Varsity Eleven, and incidentally the father of a family and the author of many books. He looked Billy over with an eye trained in measuring freshmen aspirants for the gridiron.
”You're some body of a man,” he appreciated. ”You'd strip with the best of them. Am I right in guessing that you know your way about in the ring?”
Billy nodded. ”My name's Roberts.”
The swimmer scowled with a futile effort at recollection.
”Bill--Bill Roberts,” Billy supplemented.
”Oh, ho!--Not BIG Bill Roberts? Why, I saw you fight, before the earthquake, in the Mechanic's Pavilion. It was a preliminary to Eddie Hanlon and some other fellow. You're a two-handed fighter, I remember that, with an awful wallop, but slow. Yes, I remember, you were slow that night, but you got your man.” He put out a wet hand. ”My name's Hazard--Jim Hazard.”
”An' if you're the football coach that was, a couple of years ago, I've read about you in the papers. Am I right?”
They shook hands heartily, and Saxon was introduced. She felt very small beside the two young giants, and very proud, withal, that she belonged to the race that gave them birth. She could only listen to them talk.
”I'd like to put on the gloves with you every day for half an hour,”
Hazard said. ”You could teach me a lot. Are you going to stay around here?”
”No. We're goin' on down the coast, lookin' for land. Just the same, I could teach you a few, and there's one thing you could teach me--surf swimmin'.”
”I'll swap lessons with you any time,” Hazard offered. He turned to Saxon. ”Why don't you stop in Carmel for a while? It isn't so bad.”
”It's beautiful,” she acknowledged, with a grateful smile, ”but--” She turned and pointed to their packs on the edge of the lupine. ”We're on the tramp, and lookin' for government land.”
”If you're looking down past the Sur for it, it will keep,” he laughed.
”Well, I've got to run along and get some clothes on. If you come back this way, look me up. Anybody will tell you where I live. So long.”
And, as he had first arrived, he departed, crossing the sandhills on the run.
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