"And they were looking for us, too." As the vessel came nearer and the hull became visible, it took on the appearance of a liner.
"Why, it looks as though she'd run right over us when she gets nearer," cried Dave, his eyes kindling with hope.
"Don't get too excited over it," urged Dan.

"For my part, I'm growing almost accustomed to disappointments." As the minutes passed and the liner came on and on, it looked still more as though she would run down the three middies.
[Illustration: "Look! They See Us!"] At last, however, the craft was passing, showing her port side, not very far distant, to be sure.
Uniting their voices, the three midshipmen yelled with all their power, even though they knew that their desperate call for help could not carry the distance over the subsiding gale.
Boom! That shot came from the liner, and now her port rail was black with people.
"They see us!" cried Hallam joyously.

"Look! That craft is slowing up!" Once more came the cheers of encouragement, as the liner, now some distance ahead, put off a heavy launch.

A masthead lookout, who had first seen the midshipmen, was now signaling the way to the officer in command of the launch.
Unable to see for himself, the officer in the launch depended wholly on those masthead signals.

So the launch steamed a somewhat zig-zag course over the waves.