“He’s only stunned, sir, but we must get him out of the water, or he’ll be chilled. You men,” he continued, turning to the others, while he supported himself by a piece of plank, “get together all the good pieces of timber you can find, and we’ll make a raft. I saw a coil of rope just over there, and maybe you’ll find some more.” The men, assisted by Sidney and Raymond, swam through the floating débris, and collected all the pieces of wood that were large enough to use. They also found several long pieces of rope. It was slow work, and tedious, but fortunately all were good swimmers. As fast as they brought the pieces in, pushing them before them to where Mr. Wright was waiting with Captain Foster, the mate arranged them in some sort of order. He tied fragments of about the same length and width together, and then placed those couples consecutively and bound them with the long ropes. There were two heavy hatch covers, each of which would easily support a man, and that addition expedited the work greatly. Finally the lumber was all collected and bound together. While not all of it was yet assembled in the raft, enough of it was put together to support several men. So the mate, who was anxious to get the captain out of the water, climbed up on it and directed the men from there. “Jack,” he said to the sailor, “you and Watson,” indicating one of the engineers, “bring the captain here and we’ll lift him up.” The mate had supported Captain Foster in the water by placing his arms over a plank and securing them there with a bit of rope. The two men unbound the lashing, and placing themselves one on each side of the injured man, who was still unconscious, they floated him across the few intervening yards of space to the raft. “Now, let me get hold under his shoulders,” said Mr. Wright, “and you men take hold of the raft with one hand and lift on the captain with the other.” In a few moments Captain Foster was lying stretched out on the raft, and the mate turned to Sidney and Raymond. “If you young gentlemen,” he said, “will climb up here and chafe the captain’s hands, I’ll help the men and we’ll soon have the raft done. Take off his shoes, too, and rub his feet till they’re warm and dry. He must have been thrown against a timber when the ship plunged down, and was unconscious when he struck the water. So there’ll be no water in his lungs, and all you’ll have to do will be to get him warm. I wish we had some brandy to give him, but we haven’t even got water.” “No,” said Sidney, who had climbed up and was kneeling by the captain’s side, “and Captain Foster didn’t have any breakfast this morning, and I think he was so worried last night that he didn’t eat much dinner, so he won’t be in good shape to get his strength back.” “Did you young gentlemen have any breakfast?” “No, we didn’t have any either. The explosion came just as we sat down to the table.” “That’s bad; we men ate a good meal. Well, we may not be kept here long.”