"No; you can't do it. You will be washed overboard. Watch the rope. I may go over, too, but you can tell by the feel of the rope, and if you think I'm going over, haul in. I'll yell, too. The wind is this way and you can hear me. Now, don't bother me. I'm going in a minute."
Dan hung to the rail, rope in hand, watching the roll of the ship, which he was obliged to observe not by sight, but by the sense of feeling.
All at once, as the stern rose into the air, he darted forward. He was in water nearly up to his waist, but as the quarter-deck rose the water rushed to the sides of the ship in a raging flood.
Suddenly Dan felt himself being drawn backward. At first he could not understand the meaning of it. Then he realized. Sam was hauling him in.
"Stop it! Stop it!" yelled Davis.
Sam kept on hauling. Losing his foothold on the slippery deck, Dan went down. At the same time the quarter-deck shipped a big wave and Dan was swimming blindly. Through it all he managed to keep hold of the rope with one hand. He was being dragged along the deck so fast that he could not get to his feet, even after the water had receded a little.
Finally, yelling at the top of his voice, Hickey finished his work, grabbed Dan from the deck and slammed him against the rail.
"I got you! I got you! I saved your life, didn't I?"
"Sam—Sam Hickey, you're the biggest fool I ever bumped into in all my life!"
"A fool—a—see here, is that all I get for saving you——"