“Let that Webb come back with us, you fellows!” cried Mr. Alf Barney. “Cap’n Si will be furious.”
“He belongs to the Gullwing,” said our Mr. Barney, promptly. “You can’t have him.”
“We’ll see about that—”
“See about it, then,” said the officer, shortly. Then to his own crew he said: “Give way, men! Altogether, now.”
We swept away on a graceful curve and headed for the Gullwing. Mr. Barney nodded to me with a smile.
“You certainly had a close call for your life, Clint,” he said. “Luck was with you when you went overboard from the Gullwing, after all. Everybody gave you up for lost—save Thank there. He swore that if you went to the bottom you could walk ashore, somehow.”
At that moment the brown man drew a longer breath and struggled to his knees. Mr. Barney reached forward to seize him; but I saw that the foreigner’s eyes glowed no longer with the wild light that had made him look so savage.
“Sahib,” he said softly, “is Her Innocence safe? Is the Missee unharmed? Is it well with her?”
I looked down at the child’s face. She was breathing quietly, but her eyes were still closed.
“She is asleep. She does not seem to be harmed,” I said.