With sinking heart Percy watched Spurling's shoulders rack and twist as he threw his last ounce into his sculling. By degrees his motions became slower and more painful. Suddenly he pulled in the oar and dropped it clattering aboard.
"No use!" he groaned as he toppled backward and collapsed in the bottom of the dory.
XVIII
BUOY OR BREAKER
Consternation seized Percy. Never before had he known Jim to acknowledge himself beaten. Their plight must be serious indeed.
The dory swung side to the sea and sank into the trough. A half-barrel of water slopped aboard. Percy bestirred himself. Setting the oar in the scull-hole, he brought the boat's head once more into the wind. He was not strong enough to drive her against it; but he could at least keep her pointed into the teeth of the gale and prevent her from swamping. He dropped to his knees, for it was too rough for him to keep his balance if he stood upright.
How far off was Tarpaulin? As he looked back a red glare sprang up northeast. Budge and Throppy had fired the driftwood beacon on Brimstone Point. Small good it would do Jim and himself to-night.
They could not reach the island with one oar, and it was now too dark for their friends on Tarpaulin to make out the drifting dory.