The passengers had crowded at the side of the vessel to watch the issue of the accident, and saw the drowning child and Vernon lifted into the lifeboat with the utmost satisfaction. Some of them were cheering vociferously and waving their pocket handkerchiefs to express their joy, whilst others were shouting ‘_Bravo!_’ But Vernon Blythe sat in the stern, heedless of their congratulations. He was thinking of Winnie’s narrow escape from a watery grave,--of Alice Leyton’s agonised expression when she appealed to him to save her sister, and he felt thankful that he had been made the instrument of the little one’s safety. It seemed as though he had thereby paid part of the debt he owed to Alice, and found it so difficult to discharge. Each painful incident he had just undergone passed in rapid confusion through his mind. He recalled how Alice had been talking by the fiferail with Captain Lovell, when the cry of ‘_Man overboard!_’ had been raised, and he had seen the baby quickly floating astern,--how he had knocked that gentleman into the arms of the bystanders as he jumped to her rescue,--then the leap from the half-round,--the cold immersion,--the sight of the majestic vessel as she sailed away from them,--the piteous crying of little Winnie,--his strenuous efforts to obtain the life-buoy, with the child clinging to him for dear life, and the horrible thought that they would both be drowned clasped thus together. Just as his thoughts had reached their climax, they were disturbed. Bump went the boat against the iron side, the tackles were overhauled, and hooked on, and three of the sailors, with the aid of a line and the mainbrace, clambered on to the deck. Hand-over-hand the slack was hauled in, and the heads of the crew appeared above the rail. Then the order was given to ‘Belay,’ and Vernon Blythe, with the child still clinging to him, stepped on board again. The quarter-deck was crowded. Everybody wished to congratulate him, and embrace little Winnie; a dozen hands were stretched out to grasp his own. But Jack had no time to attend to anybody. He strode past all the faces that beamed upon him, until he had reached the side of Mrs Leyton, and placed her child upon her lap. ‘Oh, Jack! my dear boy, how shall we ever thank you?’ cried the poor mother hysterically, as she clasped her baby in her arms. ‘By saying nothing about it, Mrs Leyton,’ he answered cheerily; ‘you know I would have done as much for any one of you, twice over.’ ‘My darling Winnie!’ exclaimed Alice, as she smothered her little sister’s face in kisses. ‘What should we have done if we had lost you?’ ‘Brother Jack picked me out of the water,’ said Winnie, who had begun to realise she was safe, and might leave off crying. At that name, Alice blushed scarlet. ‘Give her to me, mother,’ she said hurriedly; ‘I must change her clothes at once.’ ‘Yes, Miss Alice, and put her in a hot bath, and then into bed until to-morrow morning,’ interposed Dr Lennard, ‘or she will be ill.’