“How hot it be, Master Bob!” said Dick, when the sun had climbed so high that he seemed right overhead, sending down his rays vertically and making it so warm that the boys began to perspire, while they were tormented with thirst. “I be parched wi’ drout and could swaller a gallon o’ spring wutter if I hed the chance!”
“I say, let us have a swim,” suggested Bob. “I’ve heard it will relieve a person suffering from thirst; and, besides, I believe it will do us both good and freshen us up.”
“All right, Master Bob,” said Dick somewhat hesitatingly, in reply to this proposition. “But, ain’t it deep here?”
“Deep! What does that matter?” replied Bob lightly. “Why, Dick, you silly fellow, you forget we always used to swim out every morning into deep water. Ah, I forget, I forget! Oh,—mother, my mother!”
The poor boy broke down utterly again at this point, it having suddenly flashed across his memory that his former swims from the beach were things of the past; and that he might never see his mother or any of the home folk again.
No, never, ah, never again!
Dick, however, once more comforted him, ceasing to dwell on his own pangs of thirst; although the lad’s tongue had swollen to such a size that it seemed too big for his mouth, and his lips were all parched and cracked.
A little later, when Bob had become more composed again, his idea of a battle was carried out, the boys making use of their solitary rope, the end of the broken forestay that was hanging from the bowsprit, to climb back into the boat after they had had a dip alongside.
They were not able to swim far, being incapable of much exertion; but the plunge alone and the immersion in the water while holding to the rope’s-end refreshed them greatly, making them feel stronger, in addition to allaying their burning thirst.
Still, when this great longing was quenched, they were tortured with hunger, Dick actually tearing off one of the soles of his boots and setting to work gnawing it.