"Take our young officer off first, pilot," said one of the men; "he"s furthest gone."
Two of the most active of the pilot"s crew climbed the mast, and brought down the almost lifeless form of a young midshipman. Only two other men could be carried in the small pilot-boat at a time.
"Why, if it isn"t Master Harry Treherne!" exclaimed old Paul Petherwick, as he received the lad in his arms, and deposited him in the bottom of the boat. "Pull, my sons, pull! the sooner we get him between the warm blankets the better."
Harry Treherne, for it was indeed he, was quickly conveyed on board the _Lady Isabel_, and placed in the old pilot"s bed, where, with the aid of a gla.s.s of grog (the sailor"s specific in all maladies--in this instance the best that could be applied), he soon regained his consciousness.
His first inquiries were for the rest of his crew. Five had been saved, but the rest, with old Hulks, had been lost. The cutter was now rapidly nearing the small harbour close to the manor house.
Sir Baldwin saw her coming, and having observed her manoeuvres near the wreck, was sure that she was bringing some shipwrecked seamen on sh.o.r.e.
"We have got some one here who will be glad to see you, Sir Baldwin,"
said Paul, as he and his men lifted a sailor wrapped up in blankets out of the boat.
"Father, dear father, I am all right! don"t be alarmed. Only rather weak from having been out in the cold all night," cried a voice which Sir Baldwin recognised as that of his son Harry.
"Paul, you have repaid me, and more than repaid me," exclaimed the baronet, after the first greetings with Harry were over. "I knew that you would. Do what is right and kind on all occasions, and good will come out of it somehow or other, though we do not always exactly see how it is to be. That is what I have always said, and what has happened is a strong proof that what I have said is true."
The shipwrecked seamen were received into the manor house, and carefully tended. Harry was almost himself again by the evening, and all agreed that that Christmas Day, if not as merry, was as happy as any that the family had spent. They had many great blessings to be thankful for, and among them, not the least to the parents" hearts, was that their sailor-boy, after all the perils he had gone through, had once more been restored to them in safety.
THE END.