Part 23 (1/2)

”Steady, lad, steady. We've got to swim ash.o.r.e.”

”Josh, ahoy! Where's young master?” came out of the darkness. And now as d.i.c.k grew a little calmer, he fancied he saw pale lambent flashes of light on the water a little distance away.

”Here he be,” shouted back Josh. ”Steady, boy, steady! Don't tire yourself like that,” he added again to d.i.c.k.

The latter tried hard to obey, as he now became aware that at every stroke he made the water flashed into pale golden light; tiny dots of cold fire ran hither and thither beneath the surface, and ripples of lambent phosph.o.r.escent glow fell off to right and left.

At the same moment almost, he saw, beyond the star-like lanthorns of the steamer, the twinkling lights of the village, apparently at a tremendous distance away, while one strong bright star shed a long ray of light across the water, being the big lamp in the wooden cage at the end of the harbour pier.

”Avast there, Will!” shouted Josh again; ”let's overhaul you, and keep together. Seen either o' the buoys?”

”No.”

”Why don't they swim ash.o.r.e?” thought d.i.c.k. ”Never mind the buoys. Oh!

I shall never do it.”

A cold chilly feeling of despair came over him, and he began to beat the water more rapidly as his eyes fixed themselves wildly on the far-off lights, and he thought of his father and brother, perhaps waiting for him on the pier.

”Swim slowly,” cried another voice close by; and d.i.c.k's heart gave a leap. ”It's a long way, but we can do it.”

”Can you?” panted poor d.i.c.k, who was nearly exhausted. ”How far is it?”

”About two miles, but the tide's with us.”

”I can't do it,” panted d.i.c.k, ”not a hundred yards.”

”Yes, you can,” said Will firmly. ”Only just move your arms steady, and let the tide carry you along. Josh,” he said more loudly, ”keep close here.”

”Ay, lad, I will,” replied the fisherman; and the calm, confident tones of his companions, who spoke as if it were a matter of course to swim a couple of miles, encouraged the lad a little; but his powers and his confidence were fast ebbing away, and it was not a matter of many minutes before he would have been helpless.

For even if the sea had been perfectly smooth, he was no experienced swimmer, his efforts in this direction having been confined to a dip in the river when out on fis.h.i.+ng excursions, or a bit of a practice in some swimming-bath at home. But the sea was not perfectly smooth, for the swift tide was steadily raising the water into long, gently heaving waves, which carried the swimmers, as it were, up one minute to the top of a little ridge, and then sank them the next down, down, out of sight, into what seemed to be profound darkness whenever the pier light was blotted out.

”I--I--can't keep on,” panted d.i.c.k at last, with a piteous cry. ”Tell father--”

He could say no more, for, striking out feebly, he had allowed his mouth to sink beneath the surface, and breathing in a quant.i.ty of strangling water he began to beat the surface, and then felt himself seized.

Involuntarily, and with that natural instinct that prompts the drowning to cling to anything they touch, d.i.c.k's hands clutched despairing at the stout arm that came to his help, but only to feel himself shaken off and s.n.a.t.c.hed back, so that his face was turned towards the stars.

”Float! Hold still! Hands under water!” a voice yelled in his ear; and half stunned, half insensible, he obeyed, getting his breath better at times, at others feeling the strangling water sweep over his face.

It was a time of great peril, but there was aid such as neither Josh nor Will had counted upon close at hand.

”I'll keep him afloat till I'm tired,” Josh had said hoa.r.s.ely, ”and then you must have a turn. You can manage to make the sh.o.r.e, can't you?”

”Yes,” said Will; ”but we--we mustn't leave him, Josh.”

”Who's going to?” growled Josh fiercely. ”You keep aside me.”

They swam on, every stroke making the water flash, and the phosph.o.r.escence, like pale golden oil, sweep aside and ripple and flow upon the surface. The sky was now almost black but quite ablaze with stars, and the big lamp at the pierhead sent its cheery rays out, as if to show them the way to go, but in the transparent darkness it seemed to be miles upon miles away, while the st.u.r.dy swimmers felt as if they got no nearer, toil as they might.

”I'm going to give him over to you, lad,” said Josh in his sing-song voice, for he had calmed down now. ”I'll soon take him again, lad, but--”