e white face of his
engineer framed in the engine-room doorway, which a wave filled just as
she turned, obliterating the face forever.

The next few minutes were nothing but a buffeting, swirling confusion.
Suddenly a line struck Dan's face . . . his hands closed upon a
circular life preserver. . . . The next instant he lay gasping on the
deck of the _Veiled Ladye_, beside his deck-hand and mate.

Half an hour later, Dan, in warm clothes, sat upon the pitching deck of
the yacht, at the doorway of the saloon.

The _Fledgling_ gone and Welch and Crampton--that was all he could
think of as he sat gazing into the gray of the waters, which in closing
over the black tragedy immediately presented a surface as free from all
evidence of guilt as the placid surface of a mill-pond. He had made
himself in the _Fledgling_,--had rounded to the measure of a man aboard
of her,--had grown in the plenitude of man's strength and will and
courage and success. He felt the loss of his tug; it hit him hard; he
suffered in every mental corner and cranny. And when the two men who
had given their lives for him and for the yacht came to mind in all the
clearness of their personality and devotion to him, his head sank on
his hand and he groaned aloud.

A hand was laid gently on his shoulder, and looking up, he saw Mr.
Howland and a tall, beautiful girl by his side, both gazing at him from
the doorway with eyes filled with compassion.

"You were the captain of the tug?" asked Mr. Rowland.

"Yes, Captain Merrithew," and Dan ceased speaking and gazed at the deck.

"You owned the tug?"

"No," replied Dan.

"Captain Merrithew, I cannot say anything adequate. I appreciate what
you have done--I cannot say how much."

"Oh, father," broke in the girl, "tell him it was noble!"

[Illustration: "Oh, father," broke in the girl, "tell him it was
noble!"]

"It was noble," resumed Mr. Howland. "It was big and fine--you saved a
score of lives, and for them you gave your tug and part of your crew.
I cannot reward such men as you--I can pay just debts, though. Your
men shall not suffer; neither shall the families of those who were
lost."

Then he paused a minute and reached behind the door jamb, bringing out
a water-soaked bit of plank. "One of our best men picked this from the
water. You had been clinging to it. I thought you might like to have
it in your cabin."

It was the name board of the _Fledgling_.

CHAPTER VI

THE BRAVE