(_A FRAGMENT FROM A ROMANCE OF THE G.P.O._)
The youth, without a moment's hesitation, dashed manfully into the
sea. He was watched by the excited spectators, who cheered him as
he breasted the waves that beat against the head of the Admiralty
Pier. It must, indeed, have been a great prize in view that could
have caused such a daring feat. That was the thought of the old
Coast-guardsman, as he watched the lad (he was scarcely more than a
boy) as he took stroke after stroke for Calais. Now he rested on the
back of a treacherous porpoise that soon cast him away.
[Illustration]
"Will the steamboat lend him a helping hand, or rather rope?" muttered
the veteran salt, as he watched the seemingly fragile figure of the
swimmer. "Ah, by Neptune! well done! Strike me flat with a lubberly
marling-spike, but a kindly act indeed!"
The action that had extorted the admiration of the aged seaman was a
rope that had been thrown over the steamboat's bulwarks. The now weary
swimmer gratefully accepted the boon. It saved his life.
"Will you pay the difference, and come on board, young Sir?" asked the
Captain of the packet, facetiously.
"Were it not that I am very poor," gasped out the tired, and shivering
lad, "I should not have undertaken this gigantic but necessary task."
He held on bravely, and in good time the coast of France was sighted,
neared, and reached. Although as cold as stone, owing to the exposure
to the waves, the swimmer was now refreshed. He threw away the rope,
and once more struck out.
"Adieu!" he cried to the crew of the steamboat. "I can finish the rest
of the distance without assistance."
He was as good as his word. Soon he was standing on French ground
buying a post-card for India.
"And why have you come in this strange fashion?" asked an aged
missionary of British extraction.
The weary lad replied in a faint voice, "Because at Calais a post-card
to India costs a penny, at Dover twopence! Yet both posts surely are
conveyed by the same mail. By swimming from Dover to Calais I have
saved a penny!" And as he recorded this undoubted fact he fainted.
* * * * *
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