Page:Barbour--Lost island.djvu/181

 "Heave a line," he shouted to Tempest; "then I can manage him all right!"

Dave knew better than to let the heavy man in the water clutch him. He took a couple of strokes forward and grabbed the back of the fat man's coat with one hand, keeping himself afloat with the other, while Tempest bounded across the plank on to a tug. In less than half a minute the boy heard a shout from his friend and saw a rope shoot out. He grasped the end of it, and then, taking a firm hold of the fat man's arm, was drawn to the side of a dory.

"Jumping Cæsar!" spluttered the rescued man, when his paw had closed on the "gun'le." "Me, at my time of life, too! Now, young man, I 'll trouble you and your friend to heave on me a bit. I'm not so thin as I was. That's better. Phew!"

He sat on a seat in the dory and regarded his saturated figure with a quaint expression.

"Man and boy, I 've followed the sea all my