“All right!  Shut up now.  Someone give Phil a hand.  He’s about ready to quit.  ‘Brownie,’ too.”  Steve and Wink had taken the places of the rescuers and Joe was finishing his journey at top speed.  It was no easy task getting him aboard, but they finally accomplished it and hurried him below.  “Brownie,” too, had to be pushed and pulled over the side, and while Phil got aboard almost unaided he slumped onto a seat and, to use Perry’s expression, “passed out.”  Hot coffee and many blankets and at least three different remedies from the medicine chest presently left Joe out of pain, while in the case of Phil and “Brownie” the hot coffee and rest were alone sufficient.

Breakfast was rather late that morning, and Joe’s place was vacant, for that youth was enjoying a sleep in the after cabin.  “Brownie” and Phil, however, recovered wonderfully at the sight of bacon and eggs and did full justice to the repast.  Steve laid down the law during breakfast as follows: 

“After this there’ll be no more swimming away from the boats, fellows.  We came on this trip for fun and not funerals.  You took a big chance, Phil, when you went that far out.  This water’s about ten degrees colder than what you and Joe are used to.  It’s a wonder you didn’t both have cramps and drown.”

“I guess it was rather foolish,” agreed Phil.  “The water was a lot colder out there than inside, too.  Still it didn’t bother me any.”  He lowered his voice, with a glance toward the companion way and the other cabin.  “I thought old Joe was a goner, though, fellows.  I was about forty feet away, I suppose, when I heard him yell, and before I could get back he’d gone down.  I was afraid he meant to keep on going, but he thrashed his way up again and I managed to grab him.  The trouble was then that he wanted to drown both of us and I had a hard time making him see reason.”

“Someone ought to recommend you for the Carnegie Medal, Phil,” said Han, with a laugh that didn’t disguise his earnestness.

Phil shook his head.  “I wasn’t the hero of the adventure,” he replied quietly.  “I’m fairly at home in the water and I’ve done four miles without tiring much.  It’s ‘Brownie’ who deserves the medal, fellows.  He saw Joe go down and jumped right in and beat it out there; and you all know that ‘Brownie’ isn’t any swimmer.  I think he was just about scared to death!”

“I’ll bet he was,” agreed Steve.  “He’s never been known to go ten yards from shore or boat.  Yes, I guess ‘Brownie’ is the real hero, as you say, Phil.”

“He certainly is, because I’ll tell you frankly that I never could have got Joe in alone.  I was just about used up by the time we’d tried to drown each other out there.”

“We didn’t know anything about it,” explained Ossie, filling Phil’s cup again unasked, “until someone happened to look from the Follow Me and saw you three out there.  It was Tom Corwin, I think.  I heard him yelling—­I was getting my clothes on down here—­and I ran up on deck and then grabbed the megaphone and shouted to Steve and Wink and the others who were over on the rock near the inlet.  By the time they got it through their thick heads—­”