“Now,” he said to the man, “the moment they begin to pull, leave go of the oar, and throw your arms round me.”

He waited until a wave, bigger than ordinary, approached, and, just as it began to pass under him, gave the signal.  Higher and higher they seemed to rise, then they were dashed down with a tremendous shock.  There was a moment’s confusion as they were swept along in the white water.  Jim felt a terrific strain, and it seemed to him that the rope would cut him in sunder.  Then he was seized by a dozen strong arms, and carried high and dry, before the next wave could reach him.

For a minute or two he was scarce conscious.  The breath had been almost knocked out of his body, with the break of the wave, and the rushing water seemed still singing in his ears.

“Are you hurt, my boy?  Are you hurt, James?” were the first words he clearly heard.

“No, I think I am all right,” he said, trying to sit up.  “Is the other fellow all right?”

“He has broke his arm,” one of the fishermen, who had just helped the man to his feet, replied.  “He may be thankful it’s no worse.”

James was now helped to his feet.

“I am all right,” he repeated to Mr. Wilks, “except that I feel as if I had a hot iron round my body.  That rope has taken the skin off all round me, I fancy, and doesn’t it smart, just, with the salt water!”

“Oh, James, how could you do it?” a girl’s voice said suddenly.

The fishermen drew aside, and Aggie Linthorne pressed forward.

The squire had gone into her schoolroom and had said: 

“Mrs. Walsham, I think you had better give up your lessons for the morning, and get home.  It is blowing a gale now, and we shall probably have the rain down before long.  I will walk down with you.  The wind is dead on the shore, and it will be a grand sight.”

Aggie at once set her mind on going, too; but the squire refused, until Mrs. Walsham suggested that, if it came on wet, Aggie could stop at her house until it cleared up, or, if necessary, till morning.  Whereupon, the squire had given way, and the three had started together for Sidmouth, leaving Mrs. Walsham at her house as they passed.  The others had struggled down, against the wind, until they came within sight of the sea.  The first boat had just been run safely on shore when they arrived, and Aggie gave a cry, and put her hands over her face, as the second boat was seen to capsize.

“Cling to me, Aggie,” the squire said.  “See, they are rushing in the water to save them.  They will have them, yet!”

At the cheer which broke out from the spectators, clustering thickly now, as the first of the shipwrecked crew was brought to shore, Aggie looked out again.  It was a sight she never forgot.  With the great waves crashing down on the shore, and the line of straggling figures, waist deep in the white foam, in which were scattered, here and there, portions of the boat, oars, sails, and nets.