A little later he was able to leave off the first-aid arm-pumpings and chest-pressings; to straighten the limp and sprawling limbs, and to dive into the cuddy cabin, under Margery's directions, for blankets and rugs. When all was done that could be done, and he had propped the blanket-swathed body with the cushions so that the crash and plunge of the pitching catboat would be minimized for the sufferer, he went aft to sit beside the helmswoman, who was getting the final wave-leap of speed out of the little vessel.
"He is alive?" she asked.
"Yes; and that is about all that can be said. He isn't drowned; but he is old, and the shock has gone pretty near to snapping the thread."
"Of course, you remember him?" she said, looking away across the leaping waters.
Griswold, with his heart on fire with generous emotions, felt the cold hand gripping him again.
"He is the old gentleman you introduced me to at the Inn the other day: Galbraith; is that the name?"
"Yes," she rejoined, still looking away; "that is the name."
Griswold fell silent for the time; but a little later, when the catboat was rushing in long plunges through the entrance to the Wahaskan arm of the lake, he said: "You are going to take him to Mereside?"
"Yes. He is a friend of poppa's. And, anyway, it's the nearest place, and you said there was no time to lose."
There were anxious watchers on the Mereside landing-stage: the gardener, the stable-man, Thorsen, and three or four others. When the landing was safely made, Miss Grierson took command and issued her orders briskly.