“Right you are,” said David. “Two heads are always better than one!”
“You stop where you are,” said Jonathan. “You know your leg is bad; and besides, I’m more at home in the water than you are, although you’re a sailor. I’ll jump in, and soon turn her stern round, while you hold on to the bow, so that it doesn’t slide off and give us all our trouble over again to get it back.”
So saying, he let himself down into the sea, and catching hold of the aftermost end of the boat, which was now much deeper down in the water, owing to the bow being raised, struck vigorously with his free hand, swimming on his side, and soon managed to slew it round so that it pointed athwart-wise to the raft.
“Now, David,” he said, when this was accomplished, “if you’ll come into the water too,—I’m sorry to trouble you, old man, but I can’t do it all by myself—and put your shoulder under the other gunwale of the boat, the same as mine is under this, and hold on to our staging at the same time, we’ll be able by degrees to lift and drag it bodily on to the raft, as the send of the sea, as you call it, will assist us.”
“Why, Jonathan, you ought to be a sailor,” said David admiringly. “It’s the very thing to be done, and just what I was going to suggest.” And he also slid off into the sea, taking particular care of his wounded leg, and went to his companion’s assistance, placing himself in the position he had advised.
The two boys exerted themselves to the utmost, held on tightly to the raft as they “trod the water,” as swimmers say, with their feet, lifting the boat an inch or two at a time with each wave that rolled towards them, until, little by little, they got one end well upon the raft, which it sank quite a foot in the water, when they clambered out of the sea and got on to it, too.
“Now,” said David, “comes the tug of war, to get the boat over, right side uppermost.”
“And then,” rejoined Jonathan, “we’ll have to bale her out. How will you manage that?”
“With our boots, to be sure,” was the prompt answer.
“Oh yes,” said Jonathan, “I quite forgot those. Let us get her over at once; it is cold work standing thus in the water; and we may as well be comfortable as not!”