Boulong gave the command to "Give way!" and
again the cutter went ahead.
It required but a few strokes to give the necessary headway to the boat;
and Knott was again ordered to stand by to haul him in. The great wave
ingulfed and swept over him, and again left him aimlessly battling with the
killing billows. The bowman was in position, and leaned over so far to
reach the sufferer, that the officer ordered the next two men to seize him
by the legs, to prevent him from being dragged overboard.
Knott grasped him by his upper garment, and drew his head out of the water.
He held on like an excited bulldog, in spite of the erratic vaulting of the
boat and the struggles of him whom the deep sea seemed to have chosen as
its victim. But the bowman was a muscular seaman of fifty, and he won the
victory over the billows, and hauled the man into the cutter. He was a
person of rather swarthy complexion, dressed in Hindu costume. He was
passed along through the oarsmen to the stern-sheets, where Mr. Boulong
proceeded to lift him up with his feet in the air, to free his lungs from
the salt water he must have imbibed.
By this time the second cutter came up to the scene, and Scott in command
wondered why the first officer had passed by one man to save another; for
in the commotion of the waves he had not been able to realize the condition
of the Hindu, as he appeared to be.
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