d out the thin soup, with another
small allowance of spirits and hot water, after which, with the able
assistance of Bob Smart and his men, he wrapped them up in their
blankets and made arrangements for having them conveyed to the boat,
which had been pulled into a convenient creek further down the shore
than the wreck.

Strange to say, the youth who appeared to be dying was the least injured
by frost-bites of the party, his fingers and face being untouched, and
only a portion of the skin of his feet damaged; but this was explained
by the seaman, Ned, who, on hearing Bellew's expression of surprise,
said, with a touch of feeling:--

"It's not the frost as damaged him, sir, it's the water an' the rocks.
W'en we was wrecked, sir,--now three weeks ago, or thereby,--we'd
ableeged to send a hawser ashore, an' not one of us could swim, from the
cap'n to the cabin-boy, so Mister McLeod he wolunteered to--"

"Mister who?" demanded Bellew hastily.

"Mister McLeod."

"What was your ship's name?"

"The _Betsy_, sir."

"From what port?"

"Plymouth."

"Ho ho! well, go on."

"Well, as I was a-sayin', sir, Mister McLeod, who's as bold as a lion,
he wolunteered to swim ashore wi' a line, an' swim he did, though the
sea was rollin' in on the cliffs like the Falls o' Niagery,--which I'm
told lie somewhere in these latitudes,--leastwise they're putt down in
all the charts so. We tried for to dissuade him at first, but when the
starn o' the ship was tore away, and the cargo began to wash out, we all
saw that it was neck or nothin', so we let him go. For a time he swam
like a good 'un, but when he'd bin dashed agin' the cliffs two or three
times an' washed back again among the wreck of spars, cargo, and
riggin', we thought it was all over with all of us. Hows'ever we wasn't
forsooken at the eleventh hour, for a wave all of a sudden washed him
high and dry on a ledge of rock, an' he stood up and waved his hand and
then fell down in a swound. Then we thought again it was all up with
us, for every wave went roarin' up to young Mister McLeod, as if it wor
mad to lose him, and one or two of 'em even sent the foam washin' in
about his legs. Well, sir, the last one that did that, seemed to bring
him to, for as it washed over his face he jumped up and held on to the
rocks like a limpet. Then he got a little higher on the cliff, and when
we saw he was looking out to us we made signs to him that a hawser was
made fast to the line,