Another wave came along at that instant, bringing with it the raft, to which Andy clung with one hand while spraying around the rays of the flashlight with the other. The light struck the pair in the water for just a moment, and then the fury of the hurricane sent the raft forward with a jerk that was keenly felt by Jack. Then the rope parted, and the young major found himself helpless in the boiling and foaming waters with a bit of the rope dangling under him and Ira Small clinging desperately to his back.
“Kin you make it, lad? Kin you make it?” spluttered the old tar.
“No. The rope broke,” answered Jack.
“Then we’re bound for Davy Jones’ Locker!” moaned Ira Small. “Can’t you save us somehow, lad? Kin you save us somehow? Remember them thirteen rocks an’ the pirates’ gold. Save me, an’ you kin have all that gold.” And now the old sailor acted as if he were losing his mind. He could swim but little, and the thought of being cast away in the ocean and in the darkness terrorized him.
But if Small was ready to give up, Jack was not. Weighted down as he was by his clothing and the rope which he could not unfasten just then, and also by the form of the sailor, he continued to struggle desperately in an effort to keep afloat. Ship and improvised raft had both disappeared in the darkness, and he could see only a few feet in any direction.
He battled bravely, and wave after wave lifted the young major and his helpless burden up and through that boiling and foaming sea, which denoted that land was close at hand. Then he, like Randy and Fred, felt the sand beneath his feet and took fresh courage.
“We’ve struck land!” he cried. “Hold tight for a minute longer, Small, and I think we’ll be all right.”
Another wave swept forward, carrying the pair well up the beach. Then, watching his chance, Jack, with Ira Small still clinging to him, struggled madly to gain some sort of foothold on the shore.
In the meantime, Andy, left alone on the raft, did not know what to do. He used the searchlight as best he could, and when the rope suddenly parted he retained presence of mind enough to throw a life-preserver which was on the raft in the direction his cousin had taken. Then the waves and the flying spray cut out the view on all sides of him, and though he wiped off the glass of the searchlight and played the rays in all directions, he could see nothing but the rolling ocean.
“They are gone! All of them are gone!” he murmured, in agony. “First Gif and Spouter and Ralph, and now all the others! I’m all alone!”