With a
final look about the deck as he clung to an awning pipe, he followed
Ossie. The latter was swinging himself hand-over-hand by the rope with
the waves surging to his shoulders. Then Phil saw him strike out and the
waters hid him. The beach was visible at moments from the bow, and once
Phil, as he prepared to swing himself off, thought he saw figures
there. Then he, too, was battling. The waves swept him under the rope
and would have wrenched him from it had he not clung on desperately.
Holding to it with his right hand, he sought to find it with his left
and so draw himself on, but the surf swirled him about dizzily and he
gave up the attempt. Instead, almost drowned in the smother, he used his
left arm and his legs for swimming, edging his right hand along the
cable as best he could, and presently, although none too soon, felt the
churning gravel beneath his stockinged feet. But when he tried to stand,
the receding water swept his legs from under him so unexpectedly and
forcibly that he lost his grasp of the rope. He went down and felt the
water tugging him back, swam mightily and was lifted to the top of an
in-rushing breaker, filled his lungs with air and felt blindly for the
rope. Then hands seized him and Joe and Han, clinging to the cable,
dragged him ashore.
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