They made the line fast round his waist, and in another moment he had plunged into the sea.
The dangers and difficulties he faced were enormous. Although to the mind of a sailor the water inside the reef was smooth water, to a landsman it seemed tempested. No open boat could possibly swim in it, for the cross-swells and huge choppings formed by the rush of water through the long narrow slits between the rocks would swamp any ordinary small boat, such as those at the command of the fishermen. Besides, the fierce wind bursting through the clefts would almost blow a small boat out of the water. The anchorage for the yacht and the fishing-boats was not close in under the reef, but some way inland in the bay, where, in case of storms, the sea became regular once more, and any decked vessel might roll lazily to and fro in security through the strongest north-east wind that ever blew.
The swimmer had to contend with a great number of discouraging circumstances. The only thing in his favour being that the water was not very cold. It was his interest to keep as close as possible to the rocks, for ultimately he had to try and force his way through one of the openings between them. How this was to be done, no man there could tell. A man could only try and fail, and be pulled ashore, dead or alive, if he failed.
The first of these narrow openings he met he passed without any disagreeable experience. But just as he got under the second one the creamy foam-mantled water wedges dashed through it, and, striking him, turned him round and round in the water, and drove him a long way out of his course.
He recovered himself quickly, and was soon swimming obliquely for the reef again.
He had not got more than five times his own length when he encountered the spent torrent from another opening. This did not turn him over, but it drove him still farther away from the reef.
Another difficulty now was added. Every time a wave burst through one of those openings, the torrent from it caught the line and drew Bence away from his right course. He felt this tug him, pluck him from the straight course, and, although he was not discouraged, he knew the disappointment of men not full of resources when, in moments of anxious endeavour, they meet obstacles they are not prepared for.
However, he set his heart manfully to the work, and still kept on obliquely for the reef. But he gained no ground. He rather lost. Six of these openings had to be passed, and three out of the six had delivered the spent force of their torrents against him.
As he got farther and farther from the shore, he had a longer line to drag through the water, and a greater quantity of the line became exposed to the disturbing influence of the currents. So that when he came opposite the seventh opening, the one through which he should pass with the rope, he was many hundred yards to leeward and a good deal spent. The original line had been run out long ago, and other lines had been bent on. But now, when he turned about to swim straight for the goal, or rather for the rock at the northern side of the opening he desired to gain, for it was essential he should keep in the slack water, he had a great weight of line to drag through the water and against those six adverse currents.
But Bence had a big heart and a good cause, and he knew his mates on shore were watching him with pride as he tried to fight the wind and tide in the interest of humanity. Bence was a hero, not a fool; and although he had, from motives of pure humanity, volunteered to try and carry the line to what remained visible of the Seabird, he did not hide from himself that one of the richest men in England was on board that wreck, and that if he were the means of saving that man's life he might look on his fortune as made.