There was a danger that he might be swept by the waves against the frowning cliff, and knocked senseless. To avoid this, he struck out furiously towards the middle of the fairway, where the empty barrels thrown down by Sam were floating. In a calm sea his strength might easily have endured the fatigue of supporting a dead weight, but he knew that he was being conquered by the tumbling waves, and the blinding, choking spray that swept over him, it seemed without intermission. Again and again he felt that he could never regain his breath. The struggle to do so weakened him far more than the muscular exertion. The dreadful conviction seized him that he, too, was drowning. But his grip never relaxed; even when a dazed and helpless feeling came over him, he kept the lad’s collar firmly in his clutch. Then he was dimly conscious of a quiet restfulness and content; and Sam, in frantic terror above, saw his movements cease, and felt an agonising certainty that his young master was lost. When Dick came to himself, he found himself lying in the bottom of Nathan Pendry’s boat, within a few yards of the jetty. The rescuers had come up in the nick of time. Dick and the lad he had saved were hauled into the boat together, and the fingers of the former were so tightly clenched that for some time it was impossible to separate the two. The overturned craft had drifted within a few yards of the cliff, and the other boy still clung to it. He was taken aboard, and meanwhile two of the men used all the means they knew to restore the others to consciousness. Without waiting to secure the capsized boat, they pulled with all speed for the jetty, which was thronged with village folk, whom the news of the accident had brought in hot haste from their houses. The dripping lads were taken out and carried to the inn, where Mrs. Doubledick had made up a roaring fire, and had blankets and hot brandy awaiting them. Sam, pale as a sheet, forced his way through the crowd at the door towards his master. "Oh, ’tis good to see ’ee safe!" he cried, almost hugging Dick. "Hev ’ee swallered much?" he asked anxiously. Dick was too weak to reply. He began to laugh childishly, for within a few feet of him, swathed in a steaming blanket, sat his old enemy, Jake Tonkin, even more feeble than himself. "’Twas him ye did it for!" cried Sam indignantly. "No one could ha’ blamed ’ee if ye’d let the villain drown." Dick shook his head. "Now, young Sam Pollex," cried Mrs. Doubledick, "you be off! Maister Trevanion don’t want ’ee kiddlin’ and quaddlin’ about when he do feel bad. Just pick up his clothes out o’ that plosh o’ water and spread ’em on this chair-back. Then go. We’ll send him home-along in a cart or a wheelbarrow when he’s better." "Daze me if I go, Mistress!" cried Sam. "Here I bide till Maister be able to shail along, so I tell ’ee."