"Here, close to you, just abreast," Ralph shouted.
In another instant a rope struck his face. He grasped it, twisted it tightly round Percy's body and his own, tied a rough knot with his last strength, and then lost consciousness.
When he recovered his senses, his first sensation was that of intense pain--so intense that it extracted a groan from him.
"That's right, rub away; and pour some more brandy down his throat," a voice said.
Then he became conscious that he was being rubbed with hot flannels. He opened his eyes, and saw a gleaming of moving machinery, and the red glare of furnaces.
"Where am I?" he asked, at last.
"In the engine room of the gunboat Farcey," a voice said.
"I am suffering agony," Ralph murmured, between his teeth.
"I daresay," the officer who was standing by him answered. "You were pretty near frozen to death. Luckily your life belts kept you from taking in any water, but it was a near squeak. Another three minutes in the water, and the doctor says it would have been all up with you."
"Where is my brother?" Ralph asked suddenly; sitting up, with a full consciousness of all that had passed.