Miss Denis was not nearly so much frightened now,—nay, she felt comparatively brave since that was gone. She heard the near sound of voices, and a noise of many steps hurrying downstairs. There was a desperate struggle. In three minutes Aboo, once more a prisoner, with his arms bound in his turban, was led up on deck, cursing and howling and spitting like a wild cat. Here we behold Mrs. Creery, the centre of an anxious circle, volubly narrating a story in which the personal pronoun "I" is frequently repeated; and Helen, quite broken-down, and trembling from head to foot, clinging to her father, looking the picture of cowardice, as at the same moment Mrs. Creery might have sat for the portrait of "Bellona" herself.
Miss Caggett (who had had a most satisfactory afternoon) approached the former and examined her curiously.—She was scarcely able to speak, and was shaking like a leaf, and at this instant the General and Dr. Malone came up from the saloon, followed by Mr. Lisle, minus his hat, his coat in rags, and his arm in a sling. Every one looked at him for a moment in silence, and then a torrent of words broke forth—words conveying wonder, sympathy, and praise.
But he, scarcely noticing the crowd, went straight up to Colonel Denis and said, "Sir, I suppose you know that your daughter has just saved my life?"
"I—I—did not," he replied, astounded at this rather abrupt address; "I thought it was the other way—that you saved hers!"
"That fellow nearly strangled her; I'm afraid she got a fearful shock."
"Miss Denis," addressing her in a lower voice, "words seem but feeble things after such a deed as yours; but believe me, that I shall never forget what your courage and presence of mind have done for me to-day."
"No, no," she answered in a choked voice, shaking her head, "it was you—you." More she could not utter, as the recollection of her recent ordeal flashed before her, when Aboo had his deadly clutch upon her throat. She turned away, and hiding her face against her father's arm, burst into tears.
"What a queer, hysterical creature!" remarked Miss Caggett sotto voce to Dr. Malone. "All this fuss, just because Mr. Lisle caught a convict, and the convict tore his coat!"
"I think there was more in it than that," objected her listener. "The man nearly strangled her, and he was armed; somehow she got hold of the knife and threw it away. The story is all rather confused as yet—but she is an uncommonly plucky girl!"