"Sit down, lad. I want to talk with you a bit," he said.
Darry dropped on a block close by.
He was still filled with the deepest admiration for these men of the coast, and his determination to follow their arduous calling when he grew big enough to take an oar in the surfboat was undiminished.
"Now, tell me about yourself, and where you belong. We are not allowed to keep any rescued sailors more than a certain time. You notice that all the others have gone, save the poor chaps lying under those mounds yonder. Being a boy you've been favored; but the time has come to know what you mean to do. Speak up, lad, and tell me your story?"
Encouraged by his kind voice, Darry told all he knew about himself up to the very moment when he parted from his friend, the captain.
Mr. Frazer seemed interested.
"I feel sorry for you, Darry. It must be hard to feel that you haven't got a friend in the world. My hands are tied in the matter, so I can do nothing; but there's Abner Peake telling me he'd like you to stay with him," he remarked.
"I understood him to say he once had a boy about my age."
"Yes, a likely little chap, but it was about a year back he was lost."
"Was he drowned?" asked Darry, feeling that this was about the way most persons in this coast country must meet their end.