"Dead! Is my boy dead?" she sobbed. "Twice we have been robbed. Once, so many years ago, when our first-born was taken by the cruel sea, and now—"
She had spoken so hurriedly and with such an abandon of despair that Allan Dilke had failed in trying to calm her.
"The boy is not dead," said Shaky. "See, he is opening his eyes. He is only exhausted."
The mother fainted from excess of joy at this, and, when she had recovered consciousness, Jason was sitting up.
In the midst of their tears and caresses, Shaky spoke again.
"It may not be a proper time to say what I am about to, but something urges me on. Can you bear a revelation?"
"We can bear anything now," replied Allan Dilke. "Our boy is restored to us."
"You lost another child, did you not?" queried Shaky.
Allan Dilke made answer slowly:
"We did, years ago. But why refer to it now?"