“I won’t talk of it, if that is what you mean. But I can hardly regard it as unfortunate. It undoubtedly saved my life.”
Madge awoke with a cry.
“Nina!” she screamed. “Oh, Nina, is that you? Are we really alive?”
CHAPTER X
THE VIGIL
Sturgess awoke, too. Soon they were talking freely, and Maseden not only learned the heart-breaking story of the dozen refugees pent in the chart-house, but was told how he himself came by the blow on the head which took away his senses.
Madge Gray, or Forbes, as he must now call her, was moved to thank Providence for the intervention of the Spanish sailor.
“If that man hadn’t picked you up, Mr. Maseden,” she said, “you would have been washed overboard a few seconds later. Then nothing could have saved any of us.”