Page:The Rover Boys on the Ocean.djvu/54

42 him. Sam brought up in the rear, but soon gave up the contest.

"Help!" The single cry reached the ears of Tom and Dick when they were fully a hundred feet from the Spray. Both turned just in time to behold Sam throw up his arms and sink from view.

"Great Cæsar!" burst out Dick. "What can that mean?"

"Maybe he is only fooling," replied Tom. "Yet I wouldn't think he would be so foolish."

"I don't think Sam is fooling," said Dick seriously, and at once struck out to where the youngest Rover had gone down. Of course Tom went with him.

To reach the spot was not an easy matter, and they were still some distance away when they saw Sam come up again. Then there was a wild circling of arms and the boy disappeared once more.

"He is drowning!" gasped Dick hoarsely. "Come, we must save him, Tom!"

"Yes, yes," was the puffing answer, for Tom was swimming as never before, and for a brief instant he remembered that awful adventure Sam had had at Humpback Falls, the summer previous. At that time the youngest Rover had nearly lost his life in the water.

It was Dick who gained the spot first, just as