"Help! help! Will! Hal! help!" This cry had been repeated over and over again for some minutes; but, owing to the confusion on board, and the noise made by the boys, it had not been heard until now.
The skipper glanced along the deck, cast an eye aloft, and then over both sides of the vessel into the darkening waters. No one was to be seen, and the strong man began to tremble with superstitious fear. He made his way forward and peered over the bows, but saw nothing nor heard any thing, save the ripple of the current against the anchor chain. Walking aft he again heard the voice, and, as he leaned over the stern, it seemed to come from directly beneath him. It sounded so close that he instinctively started back.
The small boat had all this time been kept alongside where young Jabe had fastened it. Now hastening to it, filled with hope and dread, and at the same time almost beside himself with excitement, the skipper dropped astern, where he could look under the overhanging counter. There, from out the dark shadow where swung the ponderous rudder, a white face peered at him, and a weak voice uttered an exclamation of thankfulness.
Two minutes later Captain Crotty descended the companion-ladder and entered the sloop's hold. In his arms he bore the dripping, shivering, bareheaded, and barefooted form of little Cal Moody, the well-loved comrade whose tragic fate the Rangers were discussing in subdued tones.
The lad's face and hands were covered with scratches from which blood was oozing; but he could still smile, and still had voice enough to say, "I'm awfully sorry, Will, but the mermaid startled me so that--"
Just here the Rangers, who had been paralyzed into momentary silence, regained their senses, and realizing that he whom they had mourned as dead was restored to them alive and well, broke into such a storm of cheers, shouts, laughter, and questions, that young Jabe, with terrified face, came rushing in from the galley filled with the belief that they had gone sure enough crazy.
Regardless of appearances they leaped from their bunks and crowded forward, eager to shake Cal by the hand, or even to feel of him, and so assure themselves that he was real.
"Now we won't have to go home after all, will we?"
