All at once Guy stopped and looked as if unable to credit his senses. Dawn was breaking, and with it the fog was lifting considerably. Less than twenty yards from him was something that looked like a human body floating well on the surface. The body was floating on its back with the head turned away, but it was Leslie right enough.
Guy shouted. He heard no reply, but there was a distinct movement of Leslie's head.
"It might be the lift of the waves," thought Guy. "I'll have to get to him somehow."
His first impulse was to leap from his place of refuge and swim to his chum's aid; but that meant destroying the added buoyancy of the skylight. Waterlogged, it would support one person, but certainly not two. Baled as it now was, it would afford shelter for perhaps three or four.
For want of a paddle, Guy leant cautiously over the edge, and, dipping his hand, used it to propel the unwieldy skylight. His progress was slow, but by dint of paddling with one hand over each of two adjacent sides, Guy found that he was able to approach his luckless chum.
Tormented with the thought that perhaps Leslie was dead, Guy struggled frantically. As he drew near, he saw the reason why Leslie remained afloat. When the skylight had been wrenched from the deck it released several of the buoyant contents of the cabin. Amongst them was one of the hair mattresses of the bunk. As it came to the surface it rose immediately underneath Leslie's unconscious body, and sagging in the centre and rising at each end, it formed a lifebuoy, and at the same time prevented the lad from rolling off.
But already the horsehair was becoming saturated with water; its reserve of buoyancy was quickly vanishing. Another few minutes and it would fail to maintain the good work it had hitherto done.
A few more strokes brought Guy within arm's length of his friend. He grasped him by the shoulder and turned his head.
Leslie's face was deathly pale. His eyes were closed, and his mouth open. Whether there was any life left in him, Guy could not say.
His next act was to get Leslie into the skylight. It was a manoeuvre that called for both skill and strength, for the stability of the impromptu refuge was none too great, while Leslie's inert body and saturated clothes were astonishingly heavy.