In another moment Brandon was aboard the brig, and had pulled Swivel over the rail after him.
“Wot—did—I—tell—ye?” gasped the gamin, whose spirit no amount of danger could quench. “Two heads is better’n one, ef one is a cabbage head. Where’s de girl?”
But Milly was already creeping forward to their position on her hands and knees.
“How can you take me back?” she asked at once, her voice sounding as firmly above the gale as though danger was the farthest of anything from her thoughts.
Then she recognized Brandon.
“You?” she exclaimed, in surprise. “I never thought of you being on that steamer.”
“I didn’t forget what you did for me,” Brandon said in reply. “I’d have risked a good deal more than this for you.”
“You couldn’t risk any more,” she declared firmly; “for you’ve risked your life.”
Meanwhile Swivel was signaling to those on the steamer to attach a heavier cable to the one tied about his waist. This was done in a short time, and then all three of the endangered ones laid hold and pulled the cable in, hand over hand.
It was hard work. The heavy rope was wet and unmanageable, and the strain on their young muscles was terrible.