Bless the Lord, the tide's running." So they began their journey.

Zeb had taken barely a dozen strokes when the other groaned and began to hang more heavily on his neck.

But he fought on, though very soon the struggle became a blind and horrible nightmare to him.

The arm seemed to creep round his throat and strangle him, and the blackness of a great night came down over his eyes.
Still he struck out, and, oddly enough, found himself calling to his comrade to hold tight.
When Sim Udy and Elias Sweetland dashed in from the shore and swam to the rescue, they found the pair clinging to the line, and at a standstill.

And when the four were helped through the breakers to firm earth, Zeb tottered two steps forward and dropped in a swoon, burying his face in the sand.
"He's not as strong as I," muttered the stranger, staring at Parson Babbage in a dazed, uncertain fashion, and uttering the words as if they had no connection with his thoughts.