To throw off his coat, waistcoat, and trousers, and hang them over the top of the short mast, was the work of a few seconds more.  By the time this had been done, the water was nearly up to the gunwales.  In five seconds more the boat would have gone down; but, so well had Tom’s work been done, and so promptly, that these five seconds were saved.  Having done what he wished, he let himself down into the water; and, holding on by the stern of the boat, he allowed himself to float after it, kicking out at the same time, so as to assist, rather than retard, its progress.

By this time the land was not more than twenty yards away.  The boat did not sink so rapidly now, but kept afloat much better; still the water rose to a level with the gunwales, and Tom was too much rejoiced to find that it kept afloat at all to find fault with this.  The wind still blew, and the sail was still up; so that the water-logged vessel went on at a very respectable rate, until at length half the distance which Tom had noticed on going overboard was traversed.  The boat seemed to float now, though full of water, and Tom saw that his precious biscuit, at any rate, would not be very much harmed.  Nearer and nearer now he came until at last, letting himself down, his feet touched bottom.  A cry of delight escaped him; and now, bracing himself firmly against the solid land below, he urged the boat on faster, until at length her deep-sunk bows grated against the gravel of the beach.

He hurried up to the box of biscuit, and put this ashore in a safe place; after which he secured the boat to a jagged rock on the bank.  He found now that he had come to a different part of the beach altogether, for his boat was lying at the spot where the little brook ran into the sea.  Well was it for him, in that rash and hazardous experiment, that he had floated off before the tide was high.  It had led to his drifting up the bay, instead of down, and by a weak current, instead of a strong one.  The wind had thus brought him back.  Had it been full tide, he would have drifted out from the shore, and then have been carried down the bay by the falling water to swift and sure destruction.

Tom now took off his wet shirt, and put on the dry clothes which he had so prudently hung on the top of the mast.  He perceived that he had not a very pleasant lookout for the night, for the sail which he had formerly used to envelop himself with was now completely saturated.  It was also too dark to go to the woods in search of ferns or mosses on which to sleep.  However, the night was a pleasant one, and the grass around would not be so bad a resting-place as he had been forced to use while drifting in the boat.  He had now become accustomed to hardship by bitter experience, and so he looked forward to the night without care.

The day had been an eventful one, indeed, for him, and his last adventure had been full of peril, from which he had been most wonderfully rescued.