when we started, mother, and as we had both
wind and tide with us there was nothing to fear for the _Bessy_. We are
accustomed to wet jackets, and should have got nothing worse if it had
not been for our hearing guns and making for the wreck. Then we
certainly had a tremendous sea, the heaviest I have ever been out in.
However, we were under storm-sails and did very well. It was nasty work
when we anchored in broken water near the wreck, and she jumped about so
I thought the mast would have gone. However, everything held, and we
managed to save nineteen people from the wreck. That is a pleasant
thought, mother, and I would go through it again twenty times to do it."
By this time they had reached the door of the house.

"There, run upstairs and change, Jack. I will get you some tea ready by
the time you come down."

"I have had some hot cocoa, mother, and am as right as possible. Still,
I shall not object to a cup of tea and something to eat with it. We had
breakfast before we started at eight, and it is seven now. We thought
when we hoisted sail we should be down here under the six hours, but of
course going off to the wreck made all the difference. And, anyhow, we
could not have driven her fast in such a sea."

By the time Jack had had his tea a comfortable glow had come over him.
Now that it was all over he felt bruised and stiff from the buffeting he
had gone through, and after half an hour's chat with his mother and
sister, in which he told them more fully the events of the wreck, he
turned into bed and slept soundly till the morning. Captain Murchison,
for that was his name, came round half an hour after Jack had gone up to
bed to ask him to go round to the inn, as the ladies wished to see him
and thank him for his share in rescuing them, but on hearing that he had
gone up to bed asked his mother to request him to come round in the
morning at ten o'clock.

"You have reason to be proud of your son, Mrs. Robson," he said. "His
leaping over in such a sea as that to get hold of the line from our ship
was a most gallant action."

"He told me the line was tied round him, sir, so that there was no
danger in it at all."

"There is always danger in such a business as that, Mrs. Robson. The
force of the waves in shallow water is tremendous, and will beat a man
to death if they do not drown him. Then there is the difficulty of his
getting on board again when a vessel is rolling and pitching so
tremendously, and the dan