"Oh, it was only a jest, then," she interrupted, her heart sinking faintly.
"But I jest when I should be thanking you for giving me my life," he continued, disregarding her interruption. "You saved my life, Miss—I do not know your name."
"I am Emily Sanford, the admiral's granddaughter."
"You saved my life, Miss Sanford."
"I don't believe I've ever been called 'Miss Sanford' in my life. How strange it sounds!" she exclaimed, naïvely. "Everybody here calls me 'Miss Emily.'"
"You will not find me unwilling, I am sure, to adopt the common practice," he exclaimed, lightly. "But, seriously, death never seemed nearer to me than it did last night, and I have been near it before, too. Had it not been for you——"
"And Captain Barry," she interrupted, quickly.
"Of course, for him, too, I'd not be here thanking you now."
"But it was nothing, after all; anybody could have done it."
"There I disagree with you. I am sailor enough to know that it was a most desperate undertaking. You put your own life in hazard to save mine. If that old man had relaxed his efforts, if you had made a mistake with those yoke-lines,—well, there would have been three of us to go instead of one."