Two or three shots struck the water close to him, and he knew that he was visible to his pursuers.

Taking a long breath, he again went under water.

He was a first-rate swimmer and diver, having bathed regularly, summer and winter, in the bay below the castle.
He had, this time, turned his face towards the shore he had quitted.

The tide, he knew, was sweeping him up.

He kept under water as long as he possibly could, swimming his hardest.