Phil struggled manfully against these weird fancies, yet he was conscious of the force acting to suck his body down while he exerted all his strength to keep his head above the engulfing waters. The high-sided junks flashed by him as he swam with the current toward the victim struggling despairingly in the embrace of the river dragon. In a few moments his strong strokes had brought him alongside the drowning man. He grasped the man’s clothing and drew him closer, seeking a firmer hold. Avoiding the waving arms, Phil’s hand worked its way along the body until it reached his head, and there his fingers closed about the long braided cue; twisting this around his hand, the lad swam out toward the middle of the river. The Chinaman struggled violently, striving to grasp Phil’s hand. The boy saw with terror that if the Chinaman succeeded they would both drown.
“Be still or I’ll let you go!” he commanded, forgetting in his anxiety that he was talking to a Chinaman, but nevertheless the man quieted down and Phil’s hopes rose.
With the stinging water in his eyes, he gazed about him for the launch; he could scarcely see; the oppressive darkness seemed to be closing in about him. Then out of the night there loomed the sides of many junks, massed in tiers, directly in the path of the current carrying him. This new and terrible danger filled him with despair: even the strongest swimmer could not expect to survive if he were drawn under that wooden wall of vessels; if he were not crushed between their huge hulls he would be forced beneath the surface for so long a time that life would be extinct before he rose again. His one chance was to breast the tide, swimming out from shore in the hope that thus he might clear the outside junk.
The hulls seemed ever closer and the lad’s efforts weaker. The Chinaman was a dead weight upon him; if he abandoned the man he could save himself. Would it not be just? He could not hope to save both himself and the Chinaman, therefore, was he not obeying the first law of nature by abandoning the unfortunate man to his fate? But Phil, even with death staring him in the face, dismissed these unnerving thoughts from his mind. He would save the man or drown in the attempt! As he swam manfully ahead, supporting the fully conscious but terrified Chinaman, and casting anxious glances behind him at the fast approaching menace, his heart was gladdened at the sight of the launch standing in boldly between him and the junks, now but a few dozen yards away. Then he saw the boat turn slowly, painfully, toward him in the grasp of the cruel, relentless current which seemed to sweep her down under the yawning whirlpool. He closed his eyes to shut out the sight. If the launch failed to turn inside the distance she would be swept under the mass of shipping and be capsized; then the brave men who had fearlessly taken this risk to save him would all find a watery grave in the river.
“She can’t make it!” he gasped despairingly.
CHAPTER II
AN UNPLEASANT ENCOUNTER
Phil had ceased to struggle; his doom was too close upon him to hope to escape it. His one chance was the launch. A low cry of joy burst from him as he saw her turn safely under the overhanging bows of the junks and steam swiftly toward him. Yet he knew that all danger had not passed; the current was still sweeping him down while the boat must keep her headway else she would be carried back under the shipping. The launch loomed above him; he saw her anxious crew gathered in the bow ready to grasp the struggling men as they were swept by on the crest of the flood.
He was conscious of strong arms about him, and the next moment he and the rescued Chinaman were safely on board the launch, while she was steaming at full speed for safety away from the treacherous shore.
After the rescued Chinaman had been resuscitated, and Phil had recovered from his terrible exertions, he ordered the coxswain to land at the foreign concession. The Chinaman lay on the deck of the launch, fully alive but not showing by word or sign his gratitude to the midshipman who had saved his life at the risk of his own.
As the boat stopped at the stone steps of the jetty, the Chinaman arose unsteadily to his feet, grasping the boy’s hand in both of his, then without a word stepped quickly out of the launch and was lost in the night.