A NARROW ESCAPE. 121 



hnperturbably placid, and I felt reassured. By-and- 

 by everybody simmered down to a condition of sweet 

 reasonableness, and we began the dangerous and 

 exciting business of re- embarkation. The great dif- 

 ficulty was to get the boat near enough for us to 

 make a flying leap aboard, and yet preserve her 

 from having her timbers stove in upon the rocks, 

 against which the waves were leaping to tremendous 

 heights. A big one broke over the corner of a 

 rock which afforded the craft some shelter, and 

 drenched its occupants, together with some of our 

 apparatus, which I fear will for ever bear witness 

 to the rudeness of the seas running round Soa. 



When it came to my turn to enter her, I 

 cautiously advanced to a point at which there 

 appeared to be safe foothold in a crevice full of 

 salt-water and winkle-shells. Here I waited for an 

 opportunity, whilst the waves broke round my legs 

 and the boat danced about in front of me in the 

 most dizzying fashion. At last I thought my chance 

 had come, and prepared to leap ; but the craft, 

 instead of rising to where I expected, sank like 

 a plummet into the trough of the sea. The man 

 behind me had slacked the safety rope in order to 

 leave me free to bound forward, and in the absence 

 of its steadying strain I slipped, overbalanced my- 

 self, and dived head-foremost into the boat five or 

 six feet below. I struck one of the seats with my 

 right shoulder and neck, and saw stars of every 

 magnitude and colour. I made sure my collarbone 

 had gone, but luckily I was mistaken. It was a 

 narrow escape, as I struck the boat's gunwale just 

 below my right hip, and might have dropped 

 between her and the rock, in which case I should 

 have been crushed to death almost to a certainty. 

 It was a week or two before I lost the black and 



