Page:Bedford-Jones--Boy Scouts of the Air at Cape Peril.djvu/209

 Hardy gave an involuntary start that the other did not fail to notice.

"And they went in one of the ship's boats?" the airman could not resist putting in.

"Of course, how else was he to go?" demanded the operator. "You didn't see him, did you?"

"No, go on!"

"Well, he got permission and asked a sailor to help him row. About twenty minutes after the pair had pulled off, the crew heard a yell from the water, a yell for help, and on lowering a boat to investigate, found this same sailor splashing around in the water pretty near played out, or making out he was. They hauled him aboard the lifeboat, got him on the yacht, and stimulated up to the talking point. Then he panted out a yarn about his lifeboat being run down in the Sound by a tug or something that didn't show a light, which sounds pretty fishy to start with. Said the boat was smashed, and that his companion must have gone down like a stone, for, as soon as he managed to get his own senses, he swam around and didn't see a sign of him. He floundered around, he claimed,