“Oh, God! Oh, God!” he shouted in his heart. His Aunt Achsa’s God, whose All-embracing Love he had questioned because that God had made him crooked, must help him now! “I got to get help!” God must hear him.
A great exhaustion seized him. He sank again with a quivering breath. But now his feet touched sand. With new strength he plunged ahead. Again he was in deep water but he swam with eager strokes. The dreadful pain stabbed but he did not heed. Now he saw moving lights. He was near the beach! With a heartbreaking effort he fought the strength of the water, finally gaining the shallow depths. He heard voices nearby in the darkness.
Knee-deep in the water he tried to shout but he had no strength. A terrible faintness was creeping over him. His arms outstretched, he stumbled forward toward the voices. Oh, he must not yield to that overpowering sleepiness until he had made them know!
“Help—help!” he gasped, reeling toward the shadowy forms.
“What the blazes—” A man ran forward. Two others came at his heels.
“Why, it’s Lav Green!” one of them cried.
“The Arabella—adrift out there—Sidney’s on it—oh—help! And then Lavender slipped into the strong arms that reached out to catch him.
“Quick, the Sally! She’s at Rockman’s!” Captain Davies ran toward Rockman’s wharf. Before Jed Starrow’s men, concealed behind the shed could guess their intention, three men had jumped into the big motor boat and had swung her free of the wharf.
“What the hell—” shouted an ugly voice after them, but the Sally only chugged out into the darkness of the bay.