"Few here can keep themselves up in the water, in a calm sea; but if man or boy could swim through that surf, it is the lad who is just coming down from behind us.

The Otter, as we call him, for he seems to be able to live, in water, as well as on land." The lad of whom they were speaking was a bright-faced boy, of some fifteen years of age.

He was squarely built, and his dress differed a little from that of the fisher lads standing on the beach.
"Who is he ?" asked Captain Drake.
"He is the son of the schoolmaster here, a learned man, and they do say one who was once wealthy.

The lad himself would fain go to sea, but his father keeps him here.

It is a pity, for he is a bold boy, and would make a fine sailor." The Otter, as he had been called, had now come down to the beach; and, with his hands shading his eyes from the spray, sheets of which the wind carried along with blinding force, he gazed at the ship and the sea, with a steady intentness.
"I think I can get out to her," he said, to the fishermen.
"It is madness, boy," Captain Drake said.