“No,” said Syd, “I’ll time it better;” and he let the sea flood the rock as the boat rose high, and then descend twice before he made this attempt.
“Now then!” cried the lieutenant, as the wave glided back from the rough surface, and the boat’s stern was seen descending easily a few feet away.
Syd trotted over the wet rock with the water flying up and glittering in the sunshine at every step, reached the edge, and sprang lightly on to the gunwale just as the boat was at its lowest. Nothing in fact could have been better timed, but he had not calculated upon one thing.
The sailor had left the edge of the boat wet, and Syd’s shoes were soaked and slippery, so that one of them glided sidewise; there was no chance of recovery, and he went down headlong into the deep. It was so sudden that he was below the surface with the water thundering in his ears almost before he was aware that he had fallen. But he was a good swimmer, and had practised diving often enough, and he knew that he had only to take a few strokes to rise clear of the boat, and then a few more in order to be taken in.
As he swam below after going down some distance he was aware of what seemed to be a black cloud over his head, which he knew was the boat; then he was rising again through the sunlit water, and as his head rose into the sunshine a cold chill of horror paralysed every energy, for he knew that he was almost within the jaws of death.
It was all so rapid that he hardly knew how it took place; but he had been long enough at sea to know that the long, thin, curved shadow approaching him was a huge shark, and that before he could reach the boat the monster would have seized him.
He was conscious of a wild shouting in the boat, of the rapid beating of oars which made the water fly up in fountains; then, as he swam with all his might, of a violent blow on the shoulder followed by a jerk, and then half insensible from the shock he was being dragged over the boat’s side.
Amid the babel of voices that ensued, Syd made out a few words here and there.
One man said: “It’s broke my arm a’most; the beggar made such a jerk.”
“It’s broke this oar,” growled a well-known voice. “I give it him just in the jaws as he turned over.”