LOST ISLAND
waiting with others for a favorable instant to jump into a boat that danced crazily alongside. For a second the small craft was lifted almost up to the rail, and he made a leap, landing, more by good fortune than anything else, in the middle of the boat just as the men in her began to pull away.
The next ten minutes were thrilling. Dave could not think of them for months afterward without a vivid picture of it all flashing into his brain.
There were more than a dozen sailors huddled together in the dancing craft. Dave never knew the exact number. Far too heavily laden, she stood no chance of reaching shore. Straight at the breakers she went. It was neck or nothing. At the worst, the men in her could only die, but they could die fighting for their lives.
The first wave toyed with the crafty, lifting it like a cork before passing on. Twenty feet behind it towered a silent, green wall of water, the
114
