Without saying a word, Polly
the Kanaka slipped over the side, and struck out with swift
overhead strokes for the foot of the cliff. As soon as I saw
what, he was after, I shouted loudly for him to return, but he
either could not or would not hear me. The fellow's seal-like
ability as a swimmer was, of course, well known to me, but I must
confess I trembled for his life in such a weltering whirl of
rock-torn sea as boiled among the crags at the base of that
precipice. He, however, evidently knew what he was going to do,
and, though taking risks which would have certainly been fatal to
an ordinary swimmer, was quite unafraid of the result.
We all watched him breathlessly as he apparently headed straight
for the biggest outlying rock--a square, black boulder about the
size of an ordinary railway car. He came up to it on the summit
of a foaming wave; but just as I looked for him to be dashed to
pieces against its adamantine sides, he threw his legs into the
air and disappeared. A stealthy, satisfied smile glowed upon
Samuela's rugged visage, and, as he caught my eye, he said
jauntily, "Polly savee too much. Lookee him come on top one
time!" I looked, and sure enough there was the daring villain
crawling up among the kelp far out of reach of the hungry
rollers.
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