The swim proved shorter than any of them had anticipated. They had
scarce made half a mile across the bay, when Terence, who was the worst
swimmer of the three, and who had been allowing his legs to droop,
struck his toes against something more substantial than salt water.
"I' faith!" gasped he, with exhausted breath, "I think I've touched
bottom. Blessed be the Virgin, I have!" he continued, at the same time
standing erect, with head and shoulders above the surface of the water.
"All right!" cried Harry, imitating the upright attitude of the young
Hibernian. "Bottom it must be, and bottom it is. Thank God for it!"
Colin, with a similar grateful ejaculation, suspended his stroke, and
stood upon his feet.
All three instinctively faced seaward, as they did so, exclaiming:
"Poor Old Bill!"
"In troth, we might have brought him along with us!" suggested Terence,
as soon as he had recovered his wind; "might we not?"
"If we had but known it was so short a swim," said Harry, "it is
possible."
"How about our trying to swim back? Do you think we could do it?"
"Impossible!" asserted Colin.
"What, Colin, you are the best swimmer of us all! Do you say so?" asked
the others, eager to make an effort for saving the old salt, who had
been the favourite of every officer aboard the ship.
"I say impossible," replied the cautious Colin; "I would risk as much as
any of you, but there is not a reasonable chance of saving him, and
what's the use of trying impossibilities? We'd better make sure that
we're safe ourselves. There may be more deep water between us and the
shore. Let us keep on till we've set our feet on something more like
terra firma."
The advice of the young Scotchman was too prudent to be rejected; and
all three, once more turning their faces shoreward, continued to advance
in that direction.
They only knew that they were facing shoreward by the inflow of the
tide, but certain that this would prove a tolerably safe guide, they
kept boldly on, without fear of straying from the track.
For a while they waded; but, as their progress was both slower and more
toilsome, they once more betook themselves to swimming. Whenever they
felt fatigued, by either mode of progress, they changed to the other;
and partly by wading and partly by swimming, they passed through another
mile of the distance that separated them from the shore. The water then
became so shallow that swimming was no longer possible; and they waded
on, with eyes earnestly piercing the darkness, each moment expecting to
see something of the land.
They were soon to be gratified by having this expectation realised. The
curving lines that began to glimmer dimly through the obscurity, were
the outlines of rounded objects that could not be ocean waves. They
were too white for these. They could only be the sand-hills, which they
had seen before the going down of the sun. As they were now but
knee-deep in the water, and the night was still misty and dark, these
objects could be at no great distance and deep water need no longer be
dreaded.
The three castaways considered themselves as having reached the shore.
Harry and Terence were about to continue on to the beach, when Colin
called to them to come to a stop.
"Why?" inquired Harry.
"What for?" asked Terence.
"Before touching dry land," suggested the thoughtful Colin, "suppose we
decide what has been the fate of poor Old Bill."
"How can we tell that?" interrogated the other two.
"Stand still a while; we shall soon see whether his head is yet above
water."
Harry and Terence consented to the proposal of their comrade, but
without exactly comprehending its import.
"What do you mean, Colly?" asked the impatient Hibernian.
"To see if the tide's still rising," was the explanation given by the
Scotch youth.
"And what if it be?" demanded Terence.
"Only, that if it be, we will never more see the old sailor in the land
of the living. We may look for his lifeless corpse after it has been
washed ashore."
"Ah! I comprehend you," said Terence.
"You're right," added Harry. "If the tide be still rising, Old Bill is
under it by this time. I dare say his body will drift ashore before
morning."
They stood still, all three of them. They watched the water, as it
rippled up against their limbs, taking note of its ebbing and flowing.
They watched with eyes full of anxious solicitude. They continued this
curious vigil for full twenty minutes. They would have patiently
prolonged it still further had it been necessary. But it was not. No
further observation was required, to convince them that the tidal
current was still carried towards the shore; and that the water was yet
deepening around them.
The data thus obtained were sufficient to guide them to the solution of
the sad problem. During that interval, while they were swimming and
wading across the bay, the tide must have been continually on the
increase. It must have risen at least a yard. A foot would be
sufficient to have submerged the sailor, since he could not swim. There
was but one conclusion to which they could come. Their companion must
have been drowned.
With heavy hearts they turned their faces towards the shore, thinking
more of the sad fate of the sailor than their own future.
Scarce had they proceeded a dozen steps when a shout heard from behind
caused them to come to a sudden stop.
"Avast there!" cried a voice that seemed to rise from out of the depths
of the sea.
"It's Bill!" exclaimed all three in the same breath.
"'Old on, my hearties, if that's yerselves that I see!" continued the
voice. "Arrah, 'old on there. I'm so tired wadin', I want a short
spell to rest myself. Wait now, and I'll come to yez as soon as I can
take a reef out of my tops'ls."
The joy caused by this greeting, great as it was, was scarce equal to
the surprise it inspired. They who heard it were for some seconds
incredulous. The sound of the sailor's voice, well-known as it was,
with something like the figure of a human being dimly seen through the
uncertain mist that shadowed the surface of the water, was proof that he
still lived; while, but the moment before, there appeared substantial
proof that he must have gone to the bottom. Their incredulity even
continued till more positive evidence to the contrary came before them,
in the shape of the old man-o'-war's-man himself; who, rapidly splashing
through the more shallow water, in a few seconds stood face to face with
the three brave boys whom he had so lately urged to abandon him.
"Bill, is it you?" cried all three in a breath.
"Auch! and who else would yez expect it to be? Did yez take me for ould
Neptune risin' hout of the say? Or did yez think I was a mare-maid?
Gee mee a grip o' yer wee fists, ye bonny boys. Ole Bill warn't born to
be drowned!"
"But how did ye come, Bill? The tide's been rising ever since we left
you."
"Oh!" said Terence, "I see how it is; the bay isn't so deep after all:
you've waded all the way."
"Avast there, master Terry! not half the way, though I've waded part of
it. There's wather between here and where you left me deep enough to
drown Phil Macool. I didn't crass the bay by wading at all, at all."
"How then?"
"I was ferried on a nate little craft, as yez all knows of, the same
that carried us safe to the sandspit."
"The spar?"
"Hexactly as ye say. Just as I was about to gee my last gasp, something
struck me on the back o' the head, making me duck under the wather.
What was that but the tops'l yard. Hech! I wasna long in mountin' on
to it. I've left it out there afther I feeled my toes trailin' along
the bottom. Now, my bonny babies, that's how Old Bill's been able to
rejoin ye. Flippers all round once more; and then let's see what sort
o' a shore we've got to make port upon."
An enthusiastic shake of the hands passed between the old sailor and his
youthful companions; after which the faces of all were turned towards
the shore, still only dimly distinguishable, and uninviting as seen, but
more welcome to the sight than the wilderness of water stretching as if
to infinity behind them.