Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/229

Rh his face and lay inert, thrown to and fro as the boat pitched, while the water they had shipped washed back and forth over him. Billy could do nothing to aid him, for all his attention  and all of his strength were needed to handle  the plunging boat. How had Johann ever stood it so long he wondered, out there in the  gale where it seemed, now, that it was only by  a miracle they had lived at all? Could he manage to round the breakwater unassisted? He felt that he could not possibly do it, but that he must.

It was accomplished at last and they were in nearly quiet water, speeding toward the  wharf. Three members of the Life-Saving Crew, who had been watching from the pier,  came rowing out to meet them and showed  Billy where he could pick up a mooring and  make the Echo fast.

“I thought it was boys!” ejaculated one when first they came alongside. “There’s no grown man would be fool enough to cross  over from Appledore Island in such weather,  and you didn’t get in one second too soon. The way the wind is now off Andrew’s Point, no boat like yours could last five minutes.”