Page:Dapples of the Circus (1943).pdf/203

 Dapples was bridled, and Freckles had noted carefully the direction of the shore, so he headed Dapples for it.

"Keep the ship at your back all the way, and you cannot go wrong," Mr. Williams had said. So Freckles occasionally looked back to see that the ship was behind them.

Until they got used to the surf and could rise and fall with it a bit, it nearly covered them. But presently Dapples struck his swimming stride. It seemed to Freckles that he merely walked through the water.

He did not pant as Freckles did, and he was not frightened.

So it is that a dog or a horse, when it finds itself in deep water, just walks naturally in it, and this makes them the best of swimmers.

For half an hour, and it seemed like a week to Freckles, Sir Wilton swam steadily. It was a terrible sensation for the boy, knowing that the sea beneath him was bottomless as far as he was concerned.