In spite of the masses of timber, which appeared to be thrown providentially on either side, the boat approached the two men, who still floated above the water.
“Save him, friends; never mind me,” said a voice as they lifted the person he supported, and who, by his uniform appeared to be an officer, into the arms of Shane, he himself holding on to the gunnel of the boat. The officer was quickly placed in the stern-sheets, when Shane helped his companion on board, and then again grasping his oar, pulled the boat safely round before the sea had time to catch her on the beam and overturn her.
The seaman hauled out of the water, the stimulus to exertion having ceased, sank down fainting by the side of his officer. The danger of returning was as great as that which they experienced in approaching the wreck. The spray flew over them, and it seemed that every billowy wave would overwhelm the frail bark. All this time they were watched eagerly by the young ladies and their old friend from the cliff above. On the boat came; now a vast sea threatened her with instant destruction, but the fishwife and her brother, rowing till the stout oars bent with their exertions, urged on their boat and escaped the danger. Nearer and nearer she approached the shore; now a huge roller came thundering up close to her stern, and seemed about to turn her over and over, but it broke just before it reached her, and by vigorous strokes, forced ahead, she escaped its power. In another instant lifted on a foaming sea, she glided forward, arriving high up on the sandy beach of the little cove.
“There are two people in her,” exclaimed Nora, who had been eagerly watching them. “We will go down and help them, for they evidently require assistance.”
“Those two poor fellows must be nearly drowned,” observed Mr Finlayson, as he accompanied the ladies to the hut. “I wish we had a medical man here, but for the want of one, I must take his place and prescribe for them. These fishermen are more likely to kill than to revive them by their rough treatment. Come, I will push ahead and try to save the men before they press the breath out of their bodies.”
In spite, however, of the active movements of the lawyer, the young ladies kept up with him, and they arrived in front of the cottage just as Shane and his son, aided by the widow, were lifting one of the men they had saved out of the boat. She insisted on taking the seaman first, and not till she had carried him up and placed him on her own bed would she help to carry the other. The lawyer, however, arrived in time to aid Shane in carrying up the young officer, for such he appeared to be. As soon as they arrived at the hut, the apparently drowned man was placed by Mr Jamieson’s orders in front of the fire, then, having taken off his coat, he knelt down and gently rubbed his chest. On the arrival of the young ladies, such blankets and clothes as the widow possessed were, by the lawyer’s directions, placed to warm before the fire, that the half-drowned men might be wrapped in them. No sooner, however, did Lady Nora’s eyes fall on the officer’s countenance, than she uttered an agonised cry, and threw herself by his side.
“Oh, it is Captain Denham—it is Captain Denham!” she exclaimed, “and he is dead—he is dead.” Pale and trembling she hung over him.
“No, my dear young lady,” observed the lawyer, “he is still breathing, and I trust that he will soon recover,—I already indeed see signs of returning consciousness.”
While Nora, regardless of all conventionalities, was assisting the lawyer and her cousin in rubbing the captain’s hands and feet, the widow was bending over the inanimate form of the seaman.
“Shane,” she exclaimed, “I told you my boy would come back, and here he is; I feel it, I know it. Oh, Dermot, Dermot, speak to me,” she exclaimed. “Do not die now that you have come as you promised. Surely it is not to break your old mother’s heart that you have just returned to die in her arms?”