Involuntarily, and with that natural instinct that prompts the drowning to cling to anything they touch, Dick's hands clutched despairing at the stout arm that came to his help, but only to feel himself shaken off and snatched back, so that his face was turned towards the stars. "Float! Hold still! Hands under water!" a voice yelled in his ear; and half stunned, half insensible, he obeyed, getting his breath better at times, at others feeling the strangling water sweep over his face. It was a time of great peril, but there was aid such as neither Josh nor Will had counted upon close at hand. "I'll keep him afloat till I'm tired," Josh had said hoarsely, "and then you must have a turn. You can manage to make the shore, can't you?" "Yes," said Will; "but we--we mustn't leave him, Josh." "Who's going to?" growled Josh fiercely. "You keep aside me." They swam on, every stroke making the water flash, and the phosphorescence, like pale golden oil, sweep aside and ripple and flow upon the surface. The sky was now almost black but quite ablaze with stars, and the big lamp at the pierhead sent its cheery rays out, as if to show them the way to go, but in the transparent darkness it seemed to be miles upon miles away, while the sturdy swimmers felt as if they got no nearer, toil as they might. "I'm going to give him over to you, lad," said Josh in his sing-song voice, for he had calmed down now. "I'll soon take him again, lad, but--" "Hooray, Josh!" cried back Will; and he struck off to the left. "What is it, lad?" "Boat! the boat!" Josh wrenched himself up in the water, and looked over Dick, to see, dimly illumined by the golden ripples of the water, the outline of the boat, flush with the surface, its shape just seen by the phosphorescence, and he bore towards it. "T'other side, Will, lad," cried Josh as he swam vigorously over the few intervening yards, half drowning Dick by forcing his head under water again and again; but as he reached the boat's side, which was now an inch or two above, now the same distance below, he drew the lad flat on the surface, passed his hands beneath him, got hold of the gunwale, and half rolled Dick in, half drew the boat beneath him. "Mind he don't come out that side, lad," shouted Josh. "Ay, ay!" And then Will held on by one side of the sunken boat, while Josh held on the other. So slight was the buoyancy of the filled boat that the slightest touch in the way of pressure sent it down, and Dick could have drowned as easily there as in the open sea, but that, feeling something hard beneath him, a spark of hope shot to his brain, and he began to struggle once more. "Keep still," shouted Will. "Lie back with your head on the gunwale;" and Dick obeyed, content to keep his face just above water so that he might breathe. "It arn't much help, but it are a bit of help, eh, lad?" panted Josh. "Way oh! Steady!"