"You will be in the way; drowned people are not always a pleasant sight.
Sit where you are, then, since you are here; if I come across anything,
I'll row in at a distance from you."
He paddled off again.
But before very long she saw him returning. "Are you really not afraid?"
he asked, as his canoe grated on the beach.
"No."
"There's some one out there. But I find I can't lift anything into this
canoe alone--it's so tottlish; I could swim and tow, though, if I had
the canoe as a help. Can you paddle?"
"Yes."
"Get in, then." He stepped out of the boat, and she took his place. He
pushed it off and waded beside her until the water came to his chin;
then he began to swim, directing her course by a movement of his head.
She used her paddle very cautiously, now on one side, now on the other,
the whole force of her attention bent upon keeping the little craft
steady. After a while, chancing to raise her eyes, she saw something
dark ahead. Fear seized her, she could not look at it; she felt faint.
At the same moment, Paul left her, swimming towards the floating thing.
With a determined effort at self-control, she succeeded in turning the
canoe, and waited steadily until Paul gave the sign. Keeping her eyes
carefully away from that side, she then started back towards the shore,
Paul convoying his floating freight a little behind her. As they
approached the beach, he made a motion signifying that she should take
the canoe farther down; when she was safely at a distance, he brought
his tow ashore. It was the body of a sailor. The fragment of deck
planking to which he was tied had one end charred; this told the
dreadful tale--fire at sea.
The sailor was dead, though it was some time before Paul would
acknowledge it. At length he desisted from his efforts. He came down the
beach to Eve, wiping his forehead with his wet sleeve. "No use, he's
dead. I am going out again."
"I will go with you, then."
"If you are not too tired?"
They went out a second time. They saw another dark object half under
water. Again the sick feeling seized her; but she turned the canoe
safely, and they came in with their load. This time, when he dismissed
her, she went back to the little girl, and, landing, sat down; she was
very tired.
After a while she heard sounds--four canoes coming rapidly round the
point, the Indians using their utmost speed. She rose; Hollis, who was
in the first canoe, saw her, and directed his course towards her. "Why
did you stay here?" he demanded, sternly, as he saw the desolate little
figure of the child.
Eve began to excuse herself. "I was of use before you came; I went out;
I helped."
"Paul shouldn't have asked you."
"He had to; he couldn't do it alone."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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