It was an anxious moment, or rather succession of moments, for those in the Wondership. Luckily there was but little air stirring, and that little was blowing from a direction which brought the big craft down over the floating boy.

Jack watched his opportunity like a mousing cat. As the grapnel in which he was standing, holding with one hand to the rope, swung above Dick, he leaned out and with a swift, sure grasp drew the lad up. They saw him disengage the life-jacket from the unconscious young reporter and envelop his own body in it.
He leaned out and with a swift, sure grasp drew the lad up.—Page 144.

This done, he deliberately secured Dick to the grapnel by looping the rope around the boy’s body and fastening it with one of the forked ends. Then he slipped off into the water and shouted to Tom, to “call all hands” to haul Dick up to safety.

“But what about you?” cried Tom in an agony of distress.

“I’ll get along till you lower the rope again. Haul up now and be quick!”

There was nothing to be done but to obey the gritty lad’s order. Inch by inch they hauled on the rope till at last Dick could be reached and pulled on board. No time was then lost in lowering the rope to Jack. It was not any too soon. Attracted no doubt by the furious flurry of the battle between the whale and the sword-fish, several fish with triangular fins were to be seen cruising about in the vicinity.

“Sharks!” cried Captain Sprowl; but it hardly needed his warning cry to apprise the boys of the nature of this new peril.

Fortunately, Jack kept his head and made a prodigious splashing in the water whenever a fin came close. This had the effect of scaring off the sharks for the time being, although had Jack delayed an instant in grasping the rope, securing himself, and giving the word to haul up quickly, there is little doubt that they would have rushed at him en masse and made escape impossible. As it was, Captain Sprowl had his rifle ready to shoot the first one that drew near the boy, but luckily there was no need of his shooting.

By the time the sharks had rallied from their temporary alarm Jack was being hoisted upward, and within a few minutes was once more on board. Congratulations on his daring act were loud and hearty and, as may be imagined, when Dick came to himself his thanks were not rendered the less sincere by the knowledge that the plucky young inventor had risked his life to save him.

When all was in readiness the engine was set in motion once more, and the machine shot ahead still on a due westerly course. Before long there was visible, on the western horizon, a dim blue line that at first looked like a bank of low-lying clouds.

It was Tom who first proclaimed it for what it was:

“Land ho!” he sung out in nautical fashion, and a ringing cheer was the response.

“What part of the country is it, I wonder?” exclaimed Jack. “I hope we will land near a town or settlement of some sort.”

Captain Sprowl looked dubious.

“Hard telling what we’ll strike,” he said, “but we’d best be prepared not to find any hotels or tably de hoteys around, unless the ‘gators and sea-cows have started one since I was on this coast last.”

“Ever here before?” asked Dick, who by this time had fully recovered.

“Shipwrecked off this coast in the Mary Anne McKim of Baltimore in ‘86,” was the brief reply.

As they drew nearer to land they saw that the coast which faced them was apparently well-wooded. The towering forms of palms and other large trees could be made out some time before any other details were distinguishable.

On closer view, however, they saw that the country was undulating and hilly. A long line of dense forest rose, seemingly, directly from the water. It stretched north and south as far as the eye............