I wondered if a practiced
swimmer like myself had ever tried to commit suicide by drowning, and had been so resolute to die that he had resisted the temptation to let his own skill keep him from sinking.
But sharks were sharks, and he had known of more than one good
swimmer drowned in a tide-rip.
"Some
swimmer, that boy, some
swimmer," he praised.
With my
swimmer's knowledge, I knew the end was near.
Then a sudden commotion in the water behind the
swimmer caught his attention.
With a prayer to her Maker she threw her hands above her head in the last effort of the drowning
swimmer to clutch at even thin air for support--the current caught and swirled her downward toward the gorge, and, at the same instant her fingers touched and closed upon something which swung low above the water.
However, the vessel and the
swimmer insensibly neared one another, and in one of its tacks the tartan bore down within a quarter of a mile of him.
I watched him for a long time, wondering, why it was that such a doglike animal was not a better
swimmer. As he neared me I realized that he was weakening rapidly.
Now, in calm weather, to swim in the open ocean is as easy to the practised
swimmer as to ride in a spring-carriage ashore.
Being a stronger
swimmer than Delcarte, I soon was far in the lead, reaching the center of the channel just as the launch bore down upon me.
You can climb on my shoulders and I, who am a fine
swimmer, will carry you safely to the shore."
The delicious monotony of life in our calm seclusion flowed on with me, like a smooth stream with a
swimmer who glides down the current.