“Master Hampdon! Master Hampdon!�—her voice rose into a scream of terror.
“Fair and softly, my lady,� I answered slowly, sitting up and looking about me. “I am dizzy, my head aches from the blow, but I believe there are no bones broken. Let me see,� I continued, rising and steadying myself by a great effort by the boat, which luckily enough lay quietly on an even keel bedded in the sand near by, and unhurt save for the broken mast. “And you, dear lady?� I asked as soon as I could command myself.
“Safe, safe, thank God and you!� she cried tremulously.
“Nay,� said I, trembling from the violence of my efforts at control, “give to Him alone the glory.�
But she shook her head. I reached down my hand toward her and lifted her up and for the first time got sight of her. She had worn a dress of some silken stuff, over a petticoat, or skirt, of darker, heavier, woolen cloth. Her overdress had been torn to rags by the sea. There was a great rip in her underskirt, which she caught on a nail or splinter when she slid from the boat into the water. Both her buckled shoes were gone and one stocking had been stripped from her by the seas. Her little bare foot gleamed whitely on the golden sands. Her hair was undone, water dripping from her sodden raiment.
Under my steady inspection she colored violently and instinctively sought to conceal that bare foot beneath her tattered clothing. She hath protested often since as to how she must have looked, but to me then as ever, she was beautiful in her disarray and disorder and as to her sweet, white foot I longed to kiss it; aye, and take no shame to myself in this confession, either. And I have done so since, not once but many times.
Obviously the first thing was to provide her with clothes. She had her other apparel in a little chest which I had lashed to the thwarts, but when I searched for it in the boat it was gone, and the thwart too. The weight of it and the final buffeting had wrenched both clear. In fact, the boat was swept clean save for the weapons, which I had thrust under the thwarts and lashed there, and the contents of the lockers. Even the sail had been dragged clear of the boom which still clung to the foot of the broken mast.
The sea had gone down a little and as I stared out across the lagoon I caught sight of the sail. Fortunately it had got foul of the broken thwart, which had been wrenched loose by the drag of the box that had been lost, and it was still afloat. It was a light canvas. It flashed into my mind that it would do. Without a word I plunged into the lagoon and a few strokes brought me to it. I dragged it ashore and spread it in the sun before the inquiring gaze of my shipmate.
“What is that for, a tent?� she asked.
“Your clothes,� said I. “The first thing for me to do is to turn cobbler and tailor. You couldn’t go about, like a South Sea islander, bare armed and barefooted,� I continued calmly. “Out of the sailcloth we can make you some sort of a dress.�