[CHAPTER X]
THE DERELICT
“Air!” thought Tom gaspingly, as he went down and down into the depths. “I must get air! My lungs! They’re bursting!”
He felt himself being buffeted by the waters. It seemed as though he was in a whirlpool of foam. He was being sucked down.
Even then he found himself thinking of many things besides the very evident necessity of saving himself. He was wondering what had struck the Silver Star. He wondered if the ship had gone down, or had gone to pieces. What had become of her passengers and crew?
And, with all that, and with the vital necessity of getting a breath of air soon, Tom found himself regretting that his mission to rescue his parents must now fail.
“But it shan’t!” he found himself exclaiming mentally. “I’ll get up and save myself, and them too!”
Tom had grit. It was the kind of grit that enabled him to win the football game, and to lead his class to revolt against unfair treatment.
Striking out with all his might our hero swam upward. He felt that he would never reach the top so that he might fill his lungs with air, and he blessed his lucky stars that he had put on light clothing, soft shoes and was not encumbered with anything.
For he felt that he was mounting upward. Upward through the blackness and dark waters to what?