“Aye, aye!” Johnnie was in high glee. “And then I can run up the flag for the Enchantress?”
“Sure, you’ve been such a good boy to-day.”
“M-m––but that’ll be fine. I can catch the halyards from here if you’ll swing them in a little.”
“All right––be careful. Here you go now.”
“Let ’em come––I got–––”
The first thing we knew of what had happened was when we saw Johnnie’s body come pitching 37 down. He struck old Peter first, staggering him, and from there he shot down out of sight.
Clancy jumped to the rail in time to save Peter from toppling over it and just in time, as he said afterward, to see the boy splash in the slip below. He yanked Peter to his feet, and then, without turning around, he called out, “A couple of you run to the head of the dock––there’ll be a dory there somewhere––row ’round to the slip with it. He’ll be carried under the south side––look for him there if I’m not there before you. Drive her now!”
“Here, Joe, wake up!” Clancy had untied the ends of the halyards after whirling them through the block above, and now had the whole line piled up on the balcony. He took a couple of turns around his waist, took another turn around a cleat under the balcony rail, passed the bight of the line to me, and said, “Here, Joe, lower me. Take hold you, too, Peter. Pay out and not too careful. Oh, faster, man! If he ain’t dead he’ll drown, maybe––if he gets sucked in and caught under those piles it’s all off.”
He was sliding over the rail, the line tautening to his weight in no time, and he talking all the time. “Lower away––lower, lower! Faster––faster than that––he’s rising again––second time––and drifting under the wharf, sure’s fate! 38 Faster––faster––what’s wrong?––what’s caught there?––let her run!”
The halyards had become fouled, and Peter was trying to clear them, calling to Clancy to wait.