GABRIEL'S LITTLE DRAMA 97 



drowsed and nodded over it as I had seen him 

 do dozens of times before. Either my good 

 angel, fearful of the sharks, or my evil genius, 

 malignantly bent upon thwarting me, must have 

 poked the old fellow in the ribs. At any rate, 

 he rose from his chair and stepped to the taflf- 

 rail with a pair of binoculars in his hand. He 

 placed the glasses to his eyes and squinted to- 

 ward the pier to see whether or not the captain 

 had reached shore. I don't know whether he saw 

 the captain or not, but he saw me. 



"Who's that overboard?" he shouted. 



I did not answer. Then he recognized me. 



" Hey, you," he cried, calling me by name, 

 " come back here." 



I kept on swimming. 



" Lay aft here, a boat's crew," Mr. Landers 

 sang out. 



Gabriel and the cooper ran to the quarter-deck 

 and stared at me. The sailors came lounging aft 

 along the rail. Mr. Landers and Gabriel threw 

 the boat's falls from the davit posts. The sailors 

 strung out across the deck to lower the boat. 



" Lower away," shouted Mr. Landers. 



