Bless the
Lord, the tide's running."
So they began their journey. Zeb had taken barely a dozen strokes when
the other groaned and began to hang more heavily on his neck. But he
fought on, though very soon the struggle became a blind and horrible
nightmare to him. The arm seemed to creep round his throat and strangle
him, and the blackness of a great night came down over his eyes.
Still he struck out, and, oddly enough, found himself calling to his
comrade to hold tight.
When Sim Udy and Elias Sweetland dashed in from the shore and swam to
the rescue, they found the pair clinging to the line, and at a
standstill. And when the four were helped through the breakers to firm
earth, Zeb tottered two steps forward and dropped in a swoon, burying
his face in the sand.
"He's not as strong as I," muttered the stranger, staring at Parson
Babbage in a dazed, uncertain fashion, and uttering the words as if they
had no connection with his thoughts. "I'm afraid--sir--I've broken--his
heart."
And with that he, too, fainted, into the Parson's arms.
"Better carry the both up to Sheba," said Farmer Tresidder.
Ruby lay still abed when Mary Jane, who had been moving about the
kitchen, sleepy-eyed, getting ready the breakfast, dashed up-stairs with
the news that two dead men had been taken off the wreck and were even
now being brought into the yard.
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