“We’re all right,” he said then, in a quiet voice. “That current don’t spread as far as this. Why, it was exactly like looking death right in the face, and when I’d wound myself up to meet him like a man, it was as if something went off inside me, and I ran down all at once when I found we were not to die after all.”
“It was awful,” said Brace, to whom the words were addressed. “I expected it to be over every instant.”
After a while Briscoe said:
“I am glad we have come safely through it all. It is more than I had dared to hope for.”
“That it was,” said Lynton. “I don’t know how you were, but I felt like a great girl. Well, it’s all over, and very thankful I am. Mind shaking hands with me, Mr Briscoe?”
“Mind?” cried the American warmly, as he held out both his own to the mate. “No; why should I mind?”
“Because I turned round on you and cut up rough when we were in trouble. Thank you. I beg your pardon.”
“Bah! nonsense, man. It was quite natural.”
And there was a warm exchange of pressure as the two men gazed in each other’s eyes.
“Perhaps you wouldn’t mind either, sir?” said Lynton, turning to Brace.