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. But the cool gentleman had been
over-confident; and instead of waiting for one of the boats to pick him up,
he had disengaged himself from his life-preserver, and attempted to swim to
the first cutter. Mr. Boulong was so occupied with his treatment of the
first man rescued, that he did not see him, or hear his shout above the
noise of the savage waves, and had directed the cockswain to steer for the
next man, who seemed to be an older person than either of the others.

The Hindu had not entirely lost his senses; and when he was disburdened of
the load of salt water he had swallowed, he looked about him, though still
in a somewhat dazed condition.