"Then it was all done in a minute's space, like you'll live yer life
through sometimes, in a dream. They had Bill Barlow's eight-oar ready.
They pushed us back. They'd a' gone alone, them two. I kep' the third
place. Harvey and Tommy scuffled, in a breath, and Harvey, he thrust
Tommy back, and we was off.
"God knows I never expected we'd come back again. You heern the wind. You
can calk'late what it was out thar' with the rain a drivin', and the salt
foam blowed into our eyes. I calk'late we never fetched a harder pull,
no, nor a blinder one.
"And she, the cursed thing, mad with twitchin' at her cable, lay over to
one side. But she was dyin' mad. I tell ye she was dyin' mad. Thar' was
them two a hangin' to her--thar' hadn't be'n but them. So we hauled
Rollin in, but that other one, when he seen us, the chance o' bein'
saved, it crazed him, and he sent up a quick, glad sort of a yell and
throwed his arms out straight, and back he fell, like lead, into the
water. And Rollin, crouchin' thar' and shiverin', 'He couldn't swim! He's
sunk! he's sunk!' he says. Then _he_, he ris up in a flash, and out he
dove into that hell.
"Then come another gust, a blindin', blindin', blindin'.
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