Fortunately for me I had learnt to swim, and I was a tolerably good hand
at it. It was the most useful accomplishment I could have possessed at
that moment; and but for it I should have been drowned on the instant.
Diving, too, I could do a little at, else the ducking I then received
would have discomfited me a good deal; for I went quite to the bottom
among the ugly black stones.
I stayed there not a moment longer than I could help, but mounted back
to the surface like a duck; and then, rising upon the wave, looked
around me. My object in so doing was to get sight of the signal-staff,
and with the spray driving in my eyes this was not so easy. Just like a
water-dog searching for some object in the water, I had to turn twice or
thrice before I saw it; for I was uncertain in which direction to look
for it, so completely had the sudden plunge blinded me and blunted my
senses.
I got my eyes upon it at length; not within reach, as might have been
expected; but many yards off, quite twenty, I should think! Wind and
tide had been busy with me; and had I left them to themselves for ten
minutes more, they would have carried me to a point from which I should
never have been able to swim back.
As soon as I espied the post I struck directly for it--not indeed that I
very clearly knew what I should do when I got there, but urged on with a
sort of instinct that something might interfere in my favour. I was
acting just as men act when in danger of being drowned. I was catching
at straws. I need not say that I was cool: you would not believe me,
nor would there be a word of truth in it, for I was far from cool in the
moral sense of the word, whatever I might be personally and physically.
On the contrary, I was frightened nearly out of my senses; and had just
enough left to direct me back to the post, though this might only have
been instinct. But no, something more than instinct; for I had at the
same time a keen and rational sense of the unpleasant fact, that when I
should arrive at the post, I might be not a bit nearer to _safety_. I
had no fear about being able to reach the staff. I had confidence
enough in my natatory powers to make me easy on that score. It was only
when I thought of the little help I should find there, that my
apprehensions were keen, and this I was thinking of all the while I was
in the water.
I could easily have climbed the staff as far as the cask, but no
farther. To get to the top was beyond my power; one of those
difficulties which even the fear of death cannot overcome. I had tried
it till I was tired of trying; in short, till I saw I could not do it.
Could I only have accomplished that feat, I might have done so before,
for I took it for granted that on that high perch I should have been
safe, and the nine-gallon barrel would have been large enough to have
given me a seat where I might without difficulty have weathered the
storm.
Another reason there was why it would have been the best place for me.
Had I succeeded in mounting up there before nightfall, some one upon the
shore might have noticed me, and then the adventure would have ended
without all this peril. I even thought at the time of those things, and
while clambering up the shaft entertained hopes that some one might
observe me. I afterwards learned that some one did--more than one--
idlers along shore; but not knowing who it was, and very naturally
believing that some Sabbath-breaking boys had gone out to the reef to
amuse themselves--part of that amusement being to "swarm" up the
signal-staff--I was set down as one of those, and no farther notice was
taken of me.
I could not have continued to go up the staff. It speedily tired me
out; besides, as soon as I perceived the necessity for erecting the
platform, I needed every second of the time that was left me for that
work.
All the above thoughts did not pass through my mind while I was in the
water struggling back to the staff, though some of them did. I thought
of the impossibility of climbing up above the barrel--that was clear to
me; and I thought also of what I should do when I reached the post, and
that was not clear to me. I should be able to lay hold upon the staff,
as I had done before, but how I was to retain my hold was the unsolved
problem. And it remained so, till I had got up and seized the staff,
and indeed for a good while after.
Well, I reached the pole at length, after a great deal of buffetting,
having the wind and tide, and even the rain in my teeth. But I reached
it, and flung my arms around it as if it had been some dear old friend.
Nor was it aught else. Had it not been for that brave stick, I might as
well have stayed at the bottom.
Having clutched hold of it, I felt for some moments almost as if I had
been saved. I experienced no great difficulty in keeping my limbs
afloat so long as I had such a support for my arms, though the work was
irksome enough.
Had the sea been perfectly calm I could have stood it for a long time;
perhaps till the tide had gone out again, and this would have been all I
could have desired. But the sea was not calm, and that altered the
case. There had been a short lull with the smoother sea just as I
returned to the staff, and even this was a fortunate circumstance, as it
gave me time to rest and recover my breath.
Only a short respite it was, and then came wind and rain and rough
seas--rougher than ever. I was first lifted up nearly to the barrel,
and then let down again with a pitch, and then for some minutes was kept
swinging about--the staff serving as a pivot--like some wonderful
acrobat performing his feats in a gymnasium.
I withstood the first shock, and though it bowled me about, I held on
manfully. I knew I was holding on for my life, and "needs must;" but I
had slight reason to be satisfied. I felt how near it was to taking me,
and I had gloomy forebodings about the result. Worse might come after,
and I knew that a few struggles like this last would soon wear me out.
What, then, could I do that would enable me to hold on? In the interval
between the great seas, this was my ruling thought. If I had only been
possessed of a rope, I could have tied myself to the staff; but then a
rope was as far away as a boat, or an easy chair by my uncle's fireside.
It was no use thinking of a rope, nor did I waste time in doing so; but
just at that moment, as if some good spirit had put the idea into my
head, I thought of something as good as a rope--a _substitute_. Yes,
the very thing came up before my mind, as though Providence had guided
me to think of it.
You are impatient to hear what it was. You shall hear.
Around my arms and shoulders I wore a garment familiarly known as a
"cord jacket"--a roundabout of corduroy cloth, such as boys in the
humbler ranks of life use to wear, or did when I was a boy. It was my
everyday suit, and after my poor mother's death it had come to be my
Sunday wear as well. Let us say nothing to disparage this jacket. I
have since then been generally a well-dressed man, and have worn
broadcloth of the finest that West of England looms could produce; but
all the wardrobe I ever had would not in one bundle weigh as much in my
estimation as that corduroy jacket. I think I may say that I owe my
life to it.
Well, the jacket chanced to have a good row of buttons upon it--not the
common horn, or bone, or flimsy lead ones, such as are worn nowadays,
but good, substantial metal buttons--as big as a shilling every way, and
with strong iron eyes in them. Well was it for me they were so good and
strong.
I had the jacket upon my person, and that, too, was a chance in my
favour, for just as like I might not have had it on. When I started to
overtake the boat, I had thrown off both jacket and trousers; but on my
return from that expedition, and before I had got as badly scared as I
became afterwards, I had drawn my clothes on again. The air had turned
rather chilly all of a sudden, and this it was that influenced me to
re-robe myself. All a piece of good fortune, as you will presently
perceive.
What use, then, did I make of the jacket? Tear it up into strips, and
with these tie myself to the staff? No. That might have been done, but
it would have been rather a difficult performance for a person swimming
in a rough sea, and having but one hand free to make a knot with. It
would even have been out of my power to have taken the jacket off my
body, for the wet corduroy was clinging to my skin as if it had been
glued there. I did not do this, then; but I followed out a plan that
served my purpose as well--perhaps better. I opened wide my jacket,
laid my breast against the signal-staff, and, meeting the loose flaps on
the other side, buttoned them from bottom to top.
Fortunately the jacket was wide enough to take in all. My uncle never
did me a greater favour in his life--though I did not think so at the
time--than when he made me wear an ugly corduroy jacket that was "miles
too big" for me.
When the buttoning was finished, I had a moment to rest and reflect--the
first for a long while.
So far as being washed away was concerned, I had no longer anything to
fear. The post itself might go, but not without me, or I without it.
From that time forward I was as much part of the signal-staff as the
barrel at its top--indeed, more, I fancy--for a ship's hawser would not
have bound me faster to it than did the flaps of that strong corduroy.
Had the keeping close to the signal-staff been all that was wanted I
should have done well enough, but, alas! I was not yet out of danger;
and it was not long ere I perceived that my situation was but little
improved. Another vast breaker came rolling over the reef, and washed
quite over me. In fact, I began to think that I was worse fixed than
ever; for in trying to fling myself upward as the wave rose, I found
that my fastening impeded me, and hence the complete ducking that I
received. When the wave passed on, I was still in my place; but what
advantage would this be? I should soon be smothered by such repeated
immersions. I should lose strength to hold up, and would then slide
down to the bottom of the staff, and be drowned all the same--although
it might be said that I had "died by the standard!"