When John rose again to the surface, after a descent into unfathomable water, he floated there in a state of insensibility.

Fortunately the wind and tide combined to wash him to the shore, where a higher swell than usual launched him among the coral rocks, and left him there, with only his feet in the water.
"Oh! here he is,--hurrah!" shouted Corrie, on catching sight of the prostrate form of the seaman.

But the boy's manner changed the instant he observed the color of the man's face, from which all the blood had been driven, leaving it like a piece of brown leather.
"He's dead," said Alice, wringing her hands in despair.
"P'raps not," suggested Poopy, with a look of deep wisdom, as she gazed on the upturned face.
"Anyhow, we must haul him out of the water," said Corrie, whose chest heaved with the effort he made to repress his tears.
Catching up one of Bumpus's huge hands, the boy ordered Alice to grasp the other.

Poopy, without waiting for orders, seized hold of the hair of his head, and all three began to haul with might and main.

But they might as well have tried to pull a line-of-battle ship up on the shore.
The man's bulky form was immovable.