"No, you weren't, you were very brave," said Pat, in loyal admiration; adding, after a moment's pause, "Now come with me. I'll take you to Jim; but go quietly, in case he's asleep. Mother says he gets so little sleep at night. We won't awake him if he should be asleep now. This is the way, just up these little steep stairs. There are only four of them. Have you never been here before?" and Pat laid his fingers on his lips, and pushed open the door, and peeped cautiously in before he turned back to his companion. "We can go in. He's not asleep. His eyes are open. It's rather dark, when you first get in, but you'll see better when you've been in a little while. Jim," he added, advancing into the bare little wedge-shaped room which had been Jim's as long as he had been on Lone Rock, "Prince Rupert wants to come and see you. I told him to-day about how you went into the sea after him. He thinks it was very kind of you." "Lift me on the bed. I can't see him properly," spoke the second visitor in imperious tones, and Pat hastened to obey. The next minute the beautiful child and the rugged faced man were looking straight at each other with mutual curiosity and interest; and after a few seconds spent in this silent inspection, Rupert put out his tiny hand and laid it in Jim's. "I like you," he said deliberately. "I fink you're a very brave man; and you're a very good one, too. I shall tell my papa about you. I fink he will make you one of his soldiers, or servants, or somefing like that. He will like you very much for coming into the water after me. He likes men when they are brave. He is very brave himself. I shall tell him to take you away from here, and let you be always with him." Pat listened breathlessly to these words. The little prince had never before spoken in this manner at all. "Have you got a father?" he asked in eager accents; but Rupert looked at him as though he scarcely understood the question. "Have you got a papa, little gentleman?" asked Jim, in his very low, faint tones, so unlike the old strong gruff voice that used to rise above the tumult of the winds and the waves. "_Torse_ I have," answered the child, almost indignantly. "I'll tell my papa about you. He'll like you because you got yourself hurted instead of me. My papa did that himself once. He got nearly killed, instead of somebody else. Mamma told me about it her own self. And the Queen gave him a cross for it. She showed it me. It wasn't so very pretty; but mamma said papa liked it better than anything else he had. Perhaps when I'm a man, I'll get one for myself; but mamma said they only gave them to very brave men. P'raps they'll give one to you, Jim. You're very brave, you know. When my papa comes home, I'll tell him about you. He'll come and see you then. P'raps you'll have a cross, too."