“‘Halcott! Halcott!’ I cried; ‘we are saved!’
“I’m sure I have been weeping. Nelda is on my knee at this moment while I write, her cheek pressed close to mine. Oh, how good God has been to me! We have fired off guns, and raised our voices in a feeble cheer, and the people have replied.
“It is no dream then.
“Surely I am not mad!
“Oh, will the morning never come? and will the sun never shine again? I—”
The log breaks off abruptly just here, and all that I have further to say was gleaned from Halcott and Tandy themselves.
The steamer, then, that had arrived so opportunely to save the few unhappy survivors of the lost Sea Flower was the trader Borneo. The very first to welcome them when they went on board at early dawn was honest Weathereye himself. He had a hand for Halcott and a hand for Tandy—a heart for both.
“God bless you!” he hastened to say. “Ah! do not tell me your sad story now—no, never a bit of it. The Dun Avon brought your letters, and I could not rest till I came out.
“But run below, Halcott; some one else wants to welcome you. You’ll be surprised—”