“Come back here, Kendall!” called Gerald, and Kendall scurried for the cockpit. There was a sudden swash as of a wave running up a beach, and then——
“Hold on hard, fellows!” shouted Gerald, twirling the wheel.
[To the right, off the port bow of the launch, a hulking shadow took shape], a shadow that loomed high above the water and broadened instantly into the black bow of a steamer. Somewhere up there a voice shouted and was drowned in the roar of the whistle. For a long moment the three boys cowering in the cockpit of the launch, frozen into silence, neither spoke nor moved. Then Gerald seized a cushion from a seat and thrust it at Kendall.
“Hold tight to that and jump,” he cried. “Quick.”
[CHAPTER VI]
THE RESCUE
Kendall, clutching the cork-filled cushion, hesitated, but another glance at the towering black shadow almost against them decided him. Harry was already in the water. Gerald, poised on the combing, cried to him again, and so, holding the cushion to his breast, Kendall leaped. He felt the water close over him, heard its surge in his ears. Then, fighting for breath, choked by the water he had swallowed, he found himself afloat, buoyed up by the cushion. Instinctively he worked his legs as he had seen swimmers do, striving to win out of the path of the steamer. A voice called near at hand.
“Gerald! Kendall!”
Kendall tried to answer, but seemingly had no voice, and only succeeded in choking and coughing. But Gerald, from somewhere in the fog, replied: