"And he's swimming this way, sir," said another voice, "and making signals of distress."
"Have the cutter called away, Mr. Baldwin," said Uncle Dick, to his first mate, "and send a crew out to pick him up."
The boys waited to hear no more. They crowded up the companion ladder with such haste that they ran some risk of sticking fast in the narrow passageway, and reached the deck just as the crew of the cutter were tumbling into their boat which lay along side moored to a swinging boom, man-of-war fashion.
"Where is Mr. Parker?" said Uncle Dick, looking around for his second officer.
"O, let me go in charge of the boat, Uncle," exclaimed Eugene, snatching Fred's hat from his head, for he had left his own in the cabin.
"Away you go, then," said the old sailor. "Don't let him sink before you reach him."
"They're sending out a boat from the whaler, sir," said the foremast hand, who was at work in the forward rigging, and who had been the first to discover the man in the water.
"Does he appear to be all right?"
"O, yes, sir. He swims like a duck, but he's waving his hand to us."