“Who comes to disturb me now?” exclaimed the old woman from within. “Is my solitude constantly to be broken in upon by strangers?”
“We bring you a well-nigh drowned man, who will die if you refuse him your aid, good dame,” said Adam. “In mercy do not keep us outside.”
The door was opened.
“What! another victim murdered by the cruel salt sea,” exclaimed old Sal, as she saw the burden Adam and Jacob carried.
“We must have off his wet clothes, and warm his hands and feet, or he soon will be dead,” said Adam, as they carried the man into the room.
The sight seemed to calm instead of agitating the old woman, for she set about attending to the man in a more sensible way than might have been expected. While Adam and Jacob took off the man’s wet clothes, she brought a blanket that they might wrap it round his body. She then, kneeling down, assisted them in chafing his hands and feet. A deep groan showed that their efforts were successful, and the man soon opened his eyes, and gazed wildly at them. The old woman threw some sticks on the fire, which blazing up now for the first time, revealed his features more clearly than before.
“Why, father, he is Miles Gaffin,” exclaimed Jacob.
“I knew that,” answered Adam, “when we hauled him into the boat.”
“Miles Gaffin,” cried Mad Sal, “the bloodthirsty and wretched man shall not live out half his days; yet, as the sea refused to keep him, we must not be more cruel.”
Gaffin made no answer, but continued to glare wildly at the faces bent over him. He occasionally groaned and muttered a few unintelligible words.