As Boxall founded his opinion on sound grounds, I began to hope that Ben might still be in the land of the living; and as Halliday said he felt strong enough to walk, we set off along the shore. We every now and then shouted out, “Ben Blewett, ahoy! ahoy!” joining our voices to send them to a greater distance. But no answer came.
“I am afraid poor Ben must be lost,” I said.
“He is not within hearing,—or, at all events, we are not within hearing of him; but let us still persevere. Had it not been for him, we should have lost our lives; and we are bound on every account to do our utmost to find him,” observed Boxall.
We accordingly dragged on our weary feet through the yielding sand. Walking was now excessively fatiguing, as the sea had come up and covered that part of the shore which had been hardened by the constant washing of the water over it. Again we stopped and shouted, “Ben Blewett, ahoy! ahoy!” We waited, hoping against hope that a reply would come.
“I am so tired, I must sit down and rest for a few minutes,” said Halliday. Boxall and I acknowledged that we felt much in the same condition, so we threw ourselves down on the sand. Scarcely had we lain down when the sound of a voice reached our ears. It seemed to come from a long way off, yet we all felt sure that it was a voice. We accordingly started up, forgetting our fatigue, and trudged on,—the sand seeming to our weary feet softer than ever.
We went on for some time, but still we saw no one. We began to fear that we had been mistaken; still we pushed on, and in another minute I saw a dark object in the water, which I took to be a rock, close to the white beach. Directly afterwards I made out a human figure, which appeared to be coming towards us. I had got a little ahead of my companions. I called to them, and we tried to hurry on through the soft sand, which seemed to mock our efforts to advance.
“Is that you, Ben?” I shouted.
“Ay, ay, sir,” was the answer, in a tone which showed that the speaker had but little strength left. We soon reached him. It was indeed Ben himself.
“I am thankful to see you, gentlemen,” he said. “It’s what I little expected, when you disappeared from the raft. But how did you get on shore?”
We told him, and then asked how he had escaped.