“Got a fish-line?” he whispered.
I just couldn’t help saying, “Yes, I have; scouts carry fish-lines, that’s one good thing about them.”
There was a hook on my line. He tied an oarlock to the cord for a sinker and let it down into the water. Pretty soon he began pulling it up again and all of a sudden, there right outside the boat was a long, thick, gray thing. Right away I saw it was a fishing seine that he had lifted up. He reached over and grabbed it and then, somewhere near us I heard a terrible scream, and then a splash. I couldn’t see anything, only the thick mist all around....
CHAPTER XXXII
HERVEY ALL OVER
I was so excited that I let one of the oars go sliding into the water.
“Where are you?” Hervey called. “Can’t you hang onto the boat?”
“It’s sinking,” a voice called.
“It won’t sink,” Hervey shouted. “It’ll swamp. Hang onto the stern of it. Where are you anyway?”
While he was calling he was feeling for the oars and I had to tell him that one slid into the water. I wouldn’t tell you what he said, but anyway he was excited. We could hear screaming and splashing and cries of “Help, help!”
“Hang onto the boat,” Hervey cried. Then he said to me, “Keep calling so I’ll know where you are. Don’t try to move, you don’t know which way you’re going. Just let her stand as long as we can’t row. She won’t go far, only keep calling. All right, I’m with you,” he shouted. Then, before I could say anything he had jumped into the water and was swimming off. The mist just swallowed him up and in a few seconds I couldn’t see him at all, only hear the sound as he swam and that voice somewhere.