CHAPTER XXVI.
A CLIMAX.
Three of those who had tumbled thus unceremoniously on the deck of the Sunshine were soon sufficiently recovered to sit up and look around in dazed astonishment—namely Nigel, Moses, and the monkey—but the hermit still lay prone where he had been cast, with a pretty severe wound on his head, from which blood was flowing freely.
"Nigel, my boy!"
"Father!" exclaimed the youth. "Where am I? What has happened?"
"Don't excite yourself, lad," said the mariner, stooping and whispering into his son's ear. "We've got her aboard!"
No treatment could have been more effectual in bringing Nigel to his senses than this whisper.
"Is—is—Van der Kemp safe?" he asked anxiously.
"All right—only stunned, I think. That's him they're just goin' to carry below. Put 'im in my bunk, Mr. Moor."