I'll have to go to an oculist as soon as I get through with this.

This eyestrain is awful." Midshipman Dan Dalzell was really unconscious of the fact that he was joking.

It was second nature with him; he would have jested--unconsciously--with death in its most awful form.
"There, I see a head--two of them!" cried Midshipman Dave suddenly, as he half rose and pointed.
"Hurrah!"-- from Dan.
Dan let the boat's head fall off a point in order that he might see better around the mast on the weather side, just where he must head his craft in the last dash in.
"It's Foss and Ella Wright," called Dan, as the flying sailboat got in closer over the foam-crested waves.

"No, it isn't; Foss has Susie." "Can you make out Canty and Ella ?" demanded Darrin hoarsely.
"Not a sign, Dave.

Maybe he's gone under trying to save Ella." "Canty was one of our Gridley High School boys, so I'd expect him to have both the nerve and the grace to go down with a girl, if he couldn't save her as well as himself," muttered Darrin.
"There's Canty, just come up!" "Can you make out Ella's head ?" "No." "Look hard." "I don't see her, and--there!" "What's up ?" "Nothing," returned Dalzell soberly.