“You bu-bu-bet!” answered Tom. Bob, who held Barry in his arms, nodded.
“Think Barry can make it, Dan?” he asked.
“I’ll take him,” said Dan. “I hate to leave my coat and shoes behind, though.”
“We’ll have to,” said Nelson. “Wait! I saw a cod line here somewhere, didn’t I?”
“Here it is,” answered Tom.
“Good! We’ll make a bundle of the clothes, lash ’em together well, and maybe we can get ’em ashore.”
So they did it, stumbling and gasping under the assault of the waves that broke against the boat and dashed across, drenching them from head to feet. Finally all was ready.
“Here goes,” said Nelson, climbing out of the cockpit and balancing himself for an instant on the sloping, heaving deck. Then he leaped far out into the water. Dan was after him in the instant. Bob threw the bundle of clothes out, for the other end of the line was fastened around Nelson’s waist. Then Tom followed. Bob caught a glimpse of Barry’s wet head and frightened eyes as Dan arose to the surface and struck out for the shore. Bob knotted about him the rope to which Will was lashed, and turned to the boy.
“When I call for you to jump, you jump,” he said. “You needn’t be afraid; we’ll haul you in all right.”
Will looked at him silently with wide, terror-stricken eyes, and made no answer. Twenty yards away three dark objects appeared and disappeared in the green-and-white ferment. Bob climbed to the rail and leaped. The waves tried their best to smother him when he came up to the surface, but he fought for breath, and the rest was not difficult. Wind and tide set strongly toward the land, and he could not have helped going there had he tried. It seemed scarcely a minute before he felt the beach under him, and was tossed, gasping and struggling in a white smother, into the arms of Dan, who had waded out toward him. He climbed to his feet, and unknotted the rope.