It was almost dark when they reached the harbour.
"You stay with the boat," said the sailor who spoke just before, "and I'll go up into the town and see about help."
A man who had noticed their arrival sauntered up, curious to know if anything was the matter.
"Morley Scott and his brother are drowned."
In answer to the man's anxious questions, the sailor told him that when Scott's boat came along-side the ship a rope was thrown to them as usual to be made fast, and, unfortunately, both Scott and his brother sprang forward to catch it; the boat gave a violent lurch, and in a moment they were plunged into the sea, Morley Scott's head striking the ship's side as he fell. His brother was never seen again; they supposed he must have come up underneath the ship, and so met certain death.
Morley Scott's body they recovered, and had brought with them in the boat.
The sad news that two men had been drowned soon spread, and before long many anxious, awe-stricken faces were gazing down into the boat at the object which lay terribly still, covered by the ship's colour.
When poor little Charlie was lifted up, many a mother, with tears in her eyes, love in her heart, and thoughts of the little ones at home, pressed forward with offers to take the boy. One woman was even more eager than the rest: "Let me have him," she said; "he is like my own child that I lost last year come back again," and trembling with, emotion, she took poor Charlie, who was still unconscious, in her arms.
"I'll carry him home for you, Mrs. Heedman," said one of the men, kindly; "it's a good way to your house, and you'd find him heavy before you got there."
When Charlie awoke, as he thought, from sleep, he found himself, to his great astonishment, in a neat little bed with white curtains and counterpane. A small table stood near, with a glass, and bottles of medicine, such as he remembered to have seen when his mother was ill; and opposite his bed hung a picture of the finding of Moses.