It came, and surged over the man and the girl, and up to old Willis's throat, and round the knees of Jan and his neighbour; and then followed the returning out-draught, and every limb quivered under the strain; but when the cataract had disappeared, the chain was still unbroken.
"Saved!" and a cheer broke from all lips save those of the girl herself--she was as senseless as he whom she had saved.
Gently they lifted each, and laid them on the rock; and presently the schoolmistress was safe in bed at her mother's house. And the man, weak, but alive, had been carried triumphantly up to the door of Dr. Heale, which having been kicked open, the sailors insisted on carrying him right upstairs, and depositing him on the best spare bed, saying, "If you won't come to your patients, doctor, your patients shall come to you."
The man grumbled when he awoke next morning at being thrown ashore with nothing in the world but an old jersey and a bag of tobacco, two hundred miles short of the port where he hoped to land with £1,500 in his pocket.
To Dr. Heale, and to the Rev. Frank Headley, the curate, who called upon him, he mentioned that his name was Tom Thurnall, F.R.C.S.
Later in the day Tom met the coastguard lieutenant and old Captain Willis on the shore, and the latter introduced him to "Miss Harvey, the young person who saved your life last night."
Tom was struck by the beauty of the girl at once, but after thanking her, said gently, "I wish to tell you something which I do not want publicly talked of, but in which you may help me. I had nearly £1,500 about me when I came ashore last night, sewed in a belt round my waist. It is gone."
Grace turned pale, and her lips quivered. She turned to her mother and Captain Willis.
"Belt! Mother! Uncle! What is this? The gentleman has lost a belt!"
"Dear me! A belt! Well, child, that's not much to grieve over, when the Lord has spared his life," said her mother, somewhat testily.