"I don't see what we can do, with such a sea running," added Leander. "If we get much closer we'll run him down."
"We can go a little nearer, and then we can try to throw him a rope with a life preserver attached," concluded Dick.
To attempt to do more than keep the yacht headed in the teeth of the gale was a hazardous undertaking. Yet all on board the Dashaway realized that a human life was in peril, and that some risk must be run in order to effect a rescue, were such a thing possible.
"I can't see him now," said old Jacob, as the lightning seemed to subside for the time being. "It's as black as night."
"Let us fire up with a Bengal light," suggested Leander, and ran off for the article. Soon it was spluttering in the rain, but brightening up the scene about them for several hundred feet.
"Help! help!" came faintly to their ears, as the Dashaway drew closer to the upturned rowboat. "Don't leave me to perish! Help!"
"Catch the life line!" roared Dick, and whirling the article over his head, he let fly with all the strength and skill at his command.
It was a clever throw, the line shooting over the middle of the small boat and the life preserver hitting the water just beyond. The cast-
