"We might follow up the steamer, if it wasn't for poor Dick."

The boys talked the matter over for some time, and while doing this the
sails of the _Swallow_ were again hoisted, and they turned the
yacht back to the vicinity where Dick had gone overboard.

And while Tom and Sam are looking for their elder brother, let us turn
back and learn what really did become of Dick.

He was waiting for Tom to come on deck with the lanterns when, of a
sudden, something black and threatening loomed up out of the darkness
to the starboard of the _Swallow_.

The mass was the better half of a monstrous lumber raft, which was
rapidly going to pieces in the storm.

The raft, or rather what was left of it, hit the _Swallow_ a
glancing blow, otherwise the sailing craft must have been stove in and
sunk.

The shock caught Dick with one hand off the wheel, and, before he could
catch hold again, the youth found himself flung heels into the air and
over the _Swallow's_ stern.

Down and down he went into the lake waters, until he thought he would
never come up.

The turn of affairs bewildered him, and he did not come fully to his
senses until his head struck one of the timbers of the raft.