“T’other side, Will, lad,” cried Josh as he swam vigorously over the few intervening yards, half drowning Dick by forcing his head under water again and again; but as he reached the boat’s side, which was now an inch or two above, now the same distance below, he drew the lad flat on the surface, passed his hands beneath him, got hold of the gunwale, and half rolled Dick in, half drew the boat beneath him.
“Mind he don’t come out that side, lad,” shouted Josh.
“Ay, ay!” And then Will held on by one side of the sunken boat, while Josh held on the other.
So slight was the buoyancy of the filled boat that the slightest touch in the way of pressure sent it down, and Dick could have drowned as easily there as in the open sea, but that, feeling something hard beneath him, a spark of hope shot to his brain, and he began to struggle once more.
“Keep still,” shouted Will. “Lie back with your head on the gunwale;” and Dick obeyed, content to keep his face just above water so that he might breathe.
“It arn’t much help, but it are a bit of help, eh, lad?” panted Josh. “Way oh! Steady!”
“Yes, it is a rest, Josh,” panted back Will, whose spirits rose from somewhere about despair-point to three degrees above hope; but in his effort to get a little too much support from that which was not prepared to give any, he pressed on the gunwale at his side, and sent it far below the surface, drawing from Josh the warning shout, “Way oh! Steady!”
The slightest thing sent the gunwale under—in fact, the pressure of a baby’s hand would have been sufficient to keep it below the surface; but the experienced swimmers on either side knew what they were about, and after seeing that Dick’s face was above water, and without any consultation, both being moved by the same impulse, they threw themselves on their backs beside the sunken boat, one with, his head towards her stem, the other head to stern, and after a moment’s pause each took hold of the gunwale lightly with his left hand, his right being free, and then they waited till they began to float upward.
“Ready, lad?” said Josh.
“Ready,” cried Will.