A SWIM FOR LIFE.
"We're in for it now!" said Jimmy in a voice which trembled in spite
of himself. And indeed it looked bad for the four boys, trapped on a
barren rock soon to be covered by the swiftly rising tide. "It's all
my fault," he continued. "I thought I tied her fast. I'm going to be
the means of drowning all of us. Oh, dear! Oh, dear!"
Peters was in a state of collapse. He had sunk down on a boulder
too indifferent to notice that his feet were in the water. What did
it matter now? They had no chance for their lives. "Let's call for
help," he cried, as none of the boys had moved, and raising his voice
he shrieked: "Help! Help!"
Out there the wind which was blowing in from the sea, bearing with it
little wisps of night fog, carried his words away. There was not even
a cheering echo. Apparently the others were too much discouraged at
the outlook even to cry for help. In the silence that followed each
of the boys could hear his heart beat above the lapping of the waters.
Peters turned suddenly and savagely on Frank: "Well, what are you
going to do, stand there like a statue and see us all drown? Oh, do
something!" he wailed.
Frank was standing as rigidly as a statue, indeed. He was looking
out over the dark stretch of tossing water. His face was toward the
shore. He had hardly heard Peters' last cry for help, so intently was
he gazing and deliberating.
"There's only one way," he said at last, turning to Jimmy.
"And what's that?" was the query.
"Swim it," replied Frank steadily.
Even Jimmy started back appalled, and Peters, who was stepping
nervously around, sank again on the rocks, weak at the very
suggestion.
"It must be a mile," said Jimmy.
"Yes," said Frank, measuring the distance to the lights, which
twinkled along shore like far-off stars, "it is more than that. The
bay curves well in off Seawall."
"It is a chance," said Jimmy, "but a slim one."
"Oh, I can't do it," shrieked Peters. "We might as well stay here and
drown. It would be better than drowning out there in the dark."
"Some one might pick us up," suggested Jimmy, "or perhaps the _Black
Duck_ will be sighted and give the alarm." The offering was not a
very hopeful one, and Jimmy's tone was not even as hopeful as the
offering.
Frank shook his head. "It's a slim chance, as you said," he replied
slowly, "and meantime the water is creeping up here very fast. Look,
that big boulder is out of sight now under the tide. No, there's
nothing but swim for it."
Peters jumped up in a frenzy. "I tell you I won't do it. I'll stay
here and drown. I won't try to swim it. If you had had any sense you
would have tied that boat securely. You'll be the cause of my death."
Peters was wild with fear.
"Would you have been any better off if we hadn't come?" said Frank,
turning sharply on his companion. "Anyway, I didn't mean to ask you
to swim ashore," he added in a milder tone; "I meant I would swim it
myself."
"And leave us here to drown?" whined Peters.
"No, I'll try it to save you. I'll go for help."
"You mustn't, Frank," exclaimed Jimmy, coming up to him and taking
hold of his shoulder. "It would be sure death."
"Well, it's sure death to stay here, isn't it?" said Frank. "The tide
is coming in like a racehorse and even as we are talking about it the
water is creeping up. I'll go now."
"We'll go together," said Jimmy determinedly. "I will not let you go
alone."
"What, and leave us here?" cried Peters.
"For goodness sake, what do you expect? You won't swim and you don't
want us to swim. Don't you see, you coward, that it's the only chance
we have?" Jimmy was all out of patience with this boy for whose
safety they had placed themselves in such a plight. "Keep a stiff
upper lip and we'll have some one back here in a jiffy."
Peters seemed not to hear. He sat down again plainly sobbing.
"_You'll_ stay with me, Bates," he blurted out. "Don't you leave me."
"I couldn't if I wanted to," said that silent boy. "I couldn't make
half the distance. I never swam a mile in my life."
"All right, then," said Jimmy. "You two go onto the highest point of
this rock, and every now and then make all the noise you can on the
chance that some one might hear you," and he began stripping off
what few clothes he had on.
"Hold on," said Frank. "This is my job, Jimmy. There's no use of both
of us trying to swim it. You stay here----" He got no further.
"What do you take me for?" burst out Jimmy indignantly. "I'm going
with you and that settles it. We might be able to help each other. I
can't do anything waiting here, and I might be of some help to you.
Let's not spend any more time arguing about it. I'm ready."
He was, as he said, ready. And be it known that Frank, while he was
willing to undertake the peril of the trip alone, felt better that
his friend and tried companion would be with him through the terrors
of the water. He did not argue any more about it, but stretched out
his hand in the darkness, and the two boys clasped hands in a long,
firm grasp.
"All right, here we go!" said Frank. "Good-by, Peters; keep your
courage up and stick to the highest part of the rock."
Peters merely whimpered and Bates said not a word.
It was a strange sight to see there in the gloom, that of our two
heroes stripped to the skin, their bodies showing white in contrast
to the black rock and the still blacker water. Free of all hampering
clothing, they were ready for the trial of strength against the
threatening monster--the sea.
Quickly they waded out on the shelving rock, gasping as the cold
water struck them with its chill. Another step and they were in deep
water and struck out bravely for the far-distant shore.
"Let's keep close together," said Frank, as they were caught by the
full force of the tide and whipped away from the rock. "If we get
separated we will never get together again."
Jimmy, at this, swam up close to Frank, and elbow to elbow the boys
drove ahead. The waves were running high but were not white-capped,
which was a most fortunate thing for the swimmers, for the tide and
the wind were traveling in the same direction. Side by side they
swam, climbing up the long black slopes and slipping down easily into
the trough between the waves, but making good progress. Their white
arms swung rhythmically above the water.
"It's like coasting," said Jimmy, "only it's more exciting."
"Yes, it's great fun," said Frank, but it was not the heartiest
response in the world. "Seems like when we go down in the hollows
that we'd never come up again. And it seems as if we were going
backwards. Do you feel that way?"
"Yes," said Jimmy; "there's nothing to gauge yourself by, but,"
casting an eye over his shoulder, "there's nothing to be seen of the
island. I guess we are going ahead all right."
Nothing further was said for a time, the boys saving their breath for
more important work. With every ounce of strength in their sturdy
young bodies they forged ahead, now down "in the hollows," as Frank
had called them, with the water towering above them and not a light
visible but the light of the stars over their heads; now up on the
crest of a wave where for an instant they caught the twinkle of the
shore lights and steered for them, heartened by the sight.
"Look, Jimmy," said Frank, "that big light over there to the left
must be on Seawall Pier. Take a look at it when you come up on the
next wave. Isn't it?" as Jimmy slid up the slope to the top.
"I guess it is," sputtered the latter who, in the endeavor to see,
had been met with the slap of a little wavelet which filled his
nose and eyes with salt water. "It ought to be about there if our
bearings are right."
"Well, we'll make for it," said Frank, "and we must keep to the left
all the time, for the pull of the tide will take us away up the coast
if we don't look out. What's the matter?"
Frank had heard a splash and a gurgle from Jimmy, and then a
succession of rapid strokes on the water. "What's wrong?" he shouted,
as he got no answer.
Frank stopped swimming and began to tread water. His heart was in his
throat. Something had happened.
"What's the matter?" he cried out again, and his voice rang with a
strange appeal over that waste of water.
"Gee whiz!" said Jimmy, "that was awful. It nearly scared me to
death."
"What nearly scared you to death?" queried Frank, relieved to hear
his companion's natural tone in spite of the shake in it. "Something
bite you?"
"No," replied Jimmy, after he recovered his breath, "but I ran my arm
right through a big jelly fish that was probably lying just under the
surface of the water."
"Horrors!" said Frank, who hated the cold, slimy, slippery things
even in daylight. How much worse it would be, he thought, to run into
one in the pitch darkness of night!
Jimmy now swam up. "I'm all right again, but for a minute I thought
I was going to die. I was swimming the overhand when, as I drove my
under-hand ahead, I stuck it right through the body of this nasty,
slimy thing. It slipped right up to my shoulder and stuck there. I
thought sure something had me by the arm, and I stopped swimming and
sank." Jimmy, at the memory of it, raised his arms and smote them
upon the water, throwing up a shower of spray. The action relieved
his nerves.
"Don't do it again, please," said Frank. "Look ahead there, just to
the right of the Pier light! I think that's a light in our window! I
wonder if mother set it there for me. We don't seem any nearer, do
we?"
"Maybe we're being carried out to sea," said Jimmy, but he was sorry
the next minute that he had said it. Frank made no answer. He was
thinking of the comfortable sitting room at Seawall, and wondering
if his father and mother were hovering anxiously around there, or on
the veranda looking seaward. Perhaps they might be even now down at
the end of the Pier. Yes, they would be down at the Pier waiting. Or
perhaps they were getting searchers to scour the bay for them. But
would they find them, or would the sea next morning toss up on the
shore two white bodies limp and bedraggled?
"I'm doing the best I can, mother," Frank whispered to himself, as
on the wave crest he caught a fleeting glimpse of the lights, and
the water in his eyes was not all from the wave top that at that
moment went over him. He wondered about the two boys who had been
left behind. How far had the water gained on their little island of
rock? If he and Jimmy got to land and gave the warning, was there
still time to get back and save them from the sea that must be even
now creeping up on their feet? He shuddered in spite of himself.
It was bad enough to be out here struggling with the sea, but it
was something to do. It would be a hundred times worse back there
waiting, waiting, watching the tide creep nearer and nearer to the
last refuge on the highest point of the rock. He struck out more
determinedly with the thought of the lone watchers in his mind. He
must save them.