When I was on
the look-out, I held this 'ere hand, as is broken, up before my eyes,
and I couldn't see it, sir--and that's the gospel, as I'm here!"
"Do you think we're out of the track of ships?" "I know no more than
Adam, sir. Hello! what's that?"
"Up here, sir--up, quick!"
Ferrier's heart jumped as he thought--"Tom."
"Haul on here, sir, with us. God be praised, he took his rope over with
him. Haul, for the Lord's sake! Now! now!"
Ferrier lashed at his work in a fury of effort: a sea sent him on his
knees, and yet he lay hack against the inrush of water, and hauled with
all the weight of body and arms.
"Haul, my men! A good life is at the end of that line. Haul! the ice may
congeal his pulses before you get at him! Haul! oh, haul!"
The skipper sprang to the grating abaft the wheel.
"Here he is. Glory be to God! Are you right, sir?"
No answer.
"My God! are you sure, skipper?"
"Sure. Look!"
Ferrier saw an object like a mass of seaweed, but the night was so
pitchy that no outline could be made out.
"Who durst try to pass a line under his arms?"
"Hand here, skipper; I will."
"Oh, Lewis! Keep nerve and eye steady. The graves are twenty fathoms
below."
Lennard was inert, and no one could tell how he held on until he was
flung on the deck.
"Lend us that binnacle lamp, Jim. Turn it on him."
Then it was seen that Tom might have been hauled up without putting
Ferrier in peril, for the rope was twice coiled under his arms and
loosely knotted in front; he had taken that precaution after seeing Bob
fall.
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