"Can't tell at this distance. And now the next wave has blotted out what I thought I saw." "We've got to be patient," uttered Dan. The position of the midshipmen was far from being free of danger. With all their coolness and their undoubted skill in boat handling, there was grave danger, with the mainsail set, that, at any instant, wind and wave would capsize the boat. Indeed, Dave was running the lee gunwale under water half the time, trusting to the human ballast supplied by his comrade to keep them afloat. "See anything now?" demanded Dave. "No," uttered Dan, "though I'm working my eyes three shifts to try to make out something. I'll have to go to an oculist as soon as I get through with this. This eyestrain is awful." Midshipman Dan Dalzell was really unconscious of the fact that he was joking. It was second nature with him; he would have jested--unconsciously--with death in its most awful form. "There, I see a head--two of them!" cried Midshipman Dave suddenly, as he half rose and pointed. "Hurrah!"--from Dan. Dan let the boat's head fall off a point in order that he might see better around the mast on the weather side, just where he must head his craft in the last dash in. "It's Foss and Ella Wright," called Dan, as the flying sailboat got in closer over the foam-crested waves. "No, it isn't; Foss has Susie." "Can you make out Canty and Ella?" demanded Darrin hoarsely. "Not a sign, Dave. Maybe he's gone under trying to save Ella." "Canty was one of our Gridley High School boys, so I'd expect him to have both the nerve and the grace to go down with a girl, if he couldn't save her as well as himself," muttered Darrin. "There's Canty, just come up!" "Can you make out Ella's head?" "No." "Look hard." "I don't see her, and--there!" "What's up?" "Nothing," returned Dalzell soberly. "Canty's down--just gone down again." "I hope he's gone down trying to find and rescue Ella," murmured Dave. They were now so close that the young midshipmen would have been able to hear the shouts of the imperiled ones had it not been that the wind blew the sounds of voices away from the would-be rescuers. "Better ease off the sheet a bit, I guess, Davy," called Dan, as he suited the action to the word. "We don't went to run 'em down." "No." As he spoke, Dave Darrin brought the boat slightly around. They were now close enough to see that Tom Foss was supporting dead weight in the person of Susie, who was unconscious. "Waiting the word from you on the sheet, Davy," nodded Dan, as the boat drew close to the only pair of survivors now visible. "Let go the sheet!" called Dave an instant later, and Dan let it run off clear, handing the end of the rope to Darrin. "Can you head Susie this way, Foss?" Dalzell called. "I'd rather have help," came the faint answer. Tom Foss was evidently well spent by his exertions in keeping up the girl so long.