I can see his head quite clear above the wash of the sea; and he seems swimming towards us." "All right then, keep your eye on him, so as to pilot us! Mr Marline," continued Captain Miles, "lower the boat at once with four hands; we can't go close enough without it to the poor fellow, for we are to leeward of him." "Aye, aye, sir," replied the chief mate, who had gone aft and was seeing to the falls of the boat; which presently, with himself in the stern- sheets and four hands to pull the oars, was lowered down all standing, the helmsman "luffing up" at the proper moment, so that the way of the ship might be arrested to prevent the gig being upset before getting on an even keel in the sea, it being a rather ticklish thing to launch a boat from a vessel under sail.
Luckily, however, the manoeuvre was safely accomplished without any mishap, the fall tackles being unhitched the instant the gig touched the water; and then, the boat's crew shipping their oars without delay, she was pulled off to windward of us in the direction indicated by the look out man in the foretop, who with his hand extended pointed the course to be steered.
The _Josephine_ meanwhile gathered way again slowly and followed astern of the boat, although somewhat more to leeward, the wind being almost in her teeth and the ship having to sail close-hauled.
After a little time--for we had run nearly half a mile before going about and some minutes were consumed in getting the ship round on the opposite tack--we approached the spot where the accident had occurred; then, all of us could see Jackson plainly from the deck.
He was swimming grandly; now rising up on the top of a rolling wave, and then, as he surmounted this, sinking for a moment from sight in the hollow of the next, but making steady progress towards the ship all the while.

Every now and again, too, he lifted one of his hands out of the water on commencing his stroke, as if to tell us he was all right and in good heart, noticing that we were coming to his rescue.

The boat, the while rowed ahead of us as fast as the men in her could pull, putting their backs into the oars with all their strength, although making for the gallant swimmer in a slanting course to that of the _Josephine_.
Nearer and nearer we sailed, but much more slowly than all hands on board could wish, for the breeze was very light; nearer and nearer the gig approached Jackson, until we could see the very expression of his face.
He was actually grinning, and appeared from the movement of his mouth once when on top of a roller, to shout out some chaffing exclamation to us, seeming to regard the whole thing as a huge joke; and, Captain Miles was just about issuing some order about backing the main-topsail in order to heave the ship to, so as to get him and the boat aboard again, when, all at once, our anticipated joy at welcoming the poor fellow was turned into dismay by a startled cry from Jake, who was standing up in the weather rigging near me.
"Golly, Mass' Tom!" he yelled out, loud enough for all to hear him, his black face changing nearly to a sickly sea-green colour with horror and consternation.

"Dere's one big shark swimmin' right ahind de poor buckra.

O Lor', O Lor', he jus' up to him now!" At this time the ship was not quite a cable's length from the unfortunate man, who was about a point off our port bow; while the gig couldn't have been half that distance away from him; and, no sooner had Jake's startling announcement of the shark's proximity alarmed us all at the new and terrible peril threatening the swimmer, than the crew, led by Captain Miles, shouted out a concentrated cry of warning.