“What possessed the fellow?”
“I don’t know. He was scared wild when I first saw him, beating his arms about in every direction. That’s what kept him from sinking, even if his head went under at times. Got any more whiskey?”
Paul had been in the water only about half an hour, no longer than during many a previous dip in the surf, but the nervous tension had been severe.
The Doctor took hold of his hands and found the finger tips were merely cold, not blue, and as usual the form and vitality of the hand showed every element of power to give many a good grip yet.
“Ah!” thought the Doctor, “your type can put forth the strenuous effort if your spirit calls for it, and it does sometimes draw upon the physical too much; the best swimmers are for this cause sometimes drowned. Don’t do it again, my boy. When the reaction comes you require stimulants even more than at the time of exertion,” and he again gave Paul the flask.
Mr. Onset was similarly cared for in the other boat. When the two crews came together near the steamer Doctor Wise inquired of the physician in charge what Onset had to say for himself.
“He says he became giddy and fell over. I don’t believe him.”
“H’m,” mused the Doctor, “weak head and hysterical legs—what will he do next?”
Once on board again and the steamer well on her course, the incident produced quite a little sensation, a surface ripple, but very little serious impression.
Paul, in spite of himself, had to gratify curiosity and explain details—how he first caught one of the floating deck stools (“the one I threw over,” said the benign countenance with the woollen hood), then swam towards where he thought Onset might be, and saw his head against the sheen on the water, and then kept his eye on the head while swimming; how it did not seem a long swim, but a little slow after finding a life preserver to tow along; how he managed to get the floats under Onset, after first boxing his ears to keep him quiet, and then ducked into the life preserver himself, “and there we were until the steamer turned head on and the search light became so blinding that I could not see what I could see.”