“Drown her. She said I would drown both of us if I did not keep still, but every time I kept still a moment the water went over us, and that made me frantic. Oh, I do hope she did not drown! She is such a splendid girl, and I think so much of her!”
“She is all right,” assured Frank. “Mr. Hodge aided her in swimming to the shore.”
The calmness with which he talked to the girl seemed to give her confidence in his power to save her, and she trusted him completely.
Farther and farther from the shore they were carried.
Soon Frank saw a boat put out and pull toward them.
He felt that the boat was coming none too soon, for he had been weakened by his immersion beneath the surface, and he found that the effort of keeping upon the surface and holding the girl up was telling on him, despite his wonderful power of endurance.
Already he had begun to fear that he would give out, but the girl suspected nothing of the sort, for he seemed calm and confident.
“I shall owe you my life, Frank,” she said.
“We will talk of that later,” said Frank, by way of saying something in an unconcerned manner, although it seemed that the effort to speak deprived him of strength.
He looked longingly toward the boat. Two pairs of oars were being used, and the rowers were making the small craft jump with each stroke. The oars flashed in the sunshine when the wet blades came up dripping, and the bodies of the rowers swayed and bent. In the stern somebody waved a cap at Frank and uttered a shout of encouragement.