"Oh, do, do, do!" cried Pat, clapping his hands, and running across to his little prince, he folded him in his arms in a long embrace. "I should be so unhappy if you went away. Now I am going to give Jim his dinner. Will you come and help me?" "_Torse_ I will. I like Jim. I'll help you take care of him till he's better;" and the pair went off together, carefully carrying Jim's light repast, while Eileen looked up in perplexity at her husband, and said-- "What does the little fellow mean?--and why doesn't he seem to care more for his parents? He has never cried for them, or seemed to miss them, and yet he knows all about his papa and mamma, as he calls them. I cannot make it out--no, that I can't--such a warm-hearted little fellow as he is, too." Nat shook his head slowly. The problem was beyond him also. "May be we'll find out some day. It isn't all fine folks that get the love of their little ones. Perhaps they're too fine to notice him, and he doesn't love them as our little one loves us. But plainly his father is a soldier, and a bit of a grand one, too. I doubt there'll be no trouble in making out who the youngster is, once we get ashore. But if he belongs to them as have no love for him, it will be a hard matter to let him go, though we'll have to do it, I suppose." Eileen sighed at the thought, but knew it would be inevitable. Yet as the days passed by, the child endeared himself to them more and more by the singular devotion he suddenly conceived for "poor Jim," as he invariably called him. He was in and out of the little dark room morning, noon, and night. He insisted on taking Pat's place on the bed at meal times, and feeding the patient with his own tiny but capable hands. A singular bond grew up between the rough man and the two children, one of whom he had risked his life to save; and in this way the days slipped by, one after another, until the sea went down, the waves ceased to dash themselves against the reef; and Pat came tearing down from the gallery in wild excitement one morning to announce to his mother the fact that the relief boat was coming out to Lone Pock as fast as winds and waves could bring her. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER IX _HELP FROM SHORE_ The two little boys stood hand in hand on the rocks, waving their caps and cheering as the boat came dashing through the foaming waves towards the Lone Rock. The sea was still running high, but approach was possible to those who well understood what they were about. A man stood upright in the bow of the boat, boat-hook in hand, and every few moments he called out some word of warning to those behind him. As the boat neared the rock, the sail came down with a run, and the crew, taking to their oars, rowed carefully and cautiously towards the basin where a boat could float at ease, and where Nat stood, ready to render assistance when the craft should come alongside.