CHAPTER IX.
THE DESPAIR OF THE "RECALL" Dave Darrin stood within ten feet of Hallam when that latter midshipman had lost his balance and fallen into the boiling sea.
Dave's spring to the stern rail was all but instantaneous.

He was overboard, after his classmate, ere the marine had had time to leap to the life buoys.
Out of the corner of one eye Dan Dalzell saw the marine start on the jump, but Dan was overboard, also, too soon to see exactly what the marine sentry was doing.
Both daring midshipmen sank beneath the surface as they struck.
As Dan came up, however, his hand struck something solid and he clutched at it.

It was one of the life buoys.
As he grasped it, and drew his head up a trifle, Dan saw another floating within thirty feet of him.

Swimming hard, and pushing, Dan succeeded in reaching the other buoy.

He now rested, holding on to both buoys.
"Now, where's David, that little giant ?" muttered Dalzell, striving hard to see through the seething waters and over the tops of foam-crested waves.
After a few minutes Dan began to feel decidedly nervous.
"Yet Dave can't have gone down, for he's a better swimmer than I am," was Dan's consoling thought.
At last Dalzell caught sight of another head.