Having explained thus far, therefore, he at once proceeded to raise me in his powerful arms; and though he did so with the utmost gentleness, the agony attending the movement was so intense that I swooned away.
When I recovered, we were afloat and under way, standing off, with flowing sheets, for the headland I have mentioned as forming the northern extremity of the bay.
Ella was seated on the boat’s platform or deck, with my head in her lap, and was bathing my face and neck with her pocket-handkerchief, wetted from a pannikin of water which stood by her side, and which was supplied from a small breaker we had brought with us.
As soon as I opened my eyes the dear girl bent over me, and asked, with the tenderest solicitude, whether I felt any better.
“Yes, darling,” I answered; “but, for the love of mercy, pray give me some water. I am dying for want of it.”
She handed the pannikin to Bob, who immediately filled it, my eyes drinking in, in eager anticipation, every cool, sparkling drop of the precious liquid, as it gurgled crystal-clear out of the bung-hole of the breaker; the next moment the pannikin was drained to the bottom, and I was craving for more. Oh, what a delicious draught was that to my parched and burning lips and throat!
We were by this time rounding the point, and the savages had been visible some five minutes about three miles to the southward, paddling away most furiously, so Bob said, in the vain hope of overtaking the swift boat.
It was not a very long journey from this point back to the cove in which the Water Lily was lying, and in about three-quarters of an hour we were alongside.
To transfer me on board and below was a most painful operation, and I again swooned away; soon recovering, however, under Ella’s gentle ministrations. To my surprise I found she had caused me to be placed in her own cot forward, a proceeding against which I at once protested as strenuously as my feeble powers would allow.
“Not another word, Harry,” she interrupted.