'Now, Hugh!' she cried, as her outstretched hands were borne up to the level of mine. I caught her. She sprang, and was at my side in a breath.
'Nobly done, Helga,' said I: 'now over the rail with us.'
She stopped to call Abraham with a voice in which I could trace no hurry of breathing: 'Will you please hand me up my little parcel?'
This was done, and a minute later we had gained the poop of the barque.
The man with the long whiskers advanced to the break of the short poop or upper deck as Helga and I ascended the ladder that led to it. He seized the brim of his hat, and, without lifting it, bowed his head as though to the tug he gave, and said with a slightly nasal accent by no means Yankee, but of the kind that is common to the denomination of 'tub-thumpers':
'I suppose you are the two distressed parties the sailor in the lugger called out about?'
'We are, sir,' said I. 'May I take it that you are the captain of this barque?'
'You may,' he responded, with his eyes fixed on Helga. 'Captain Joppa Bunting, master of the barque _Light of the World_, from the river Thames for Table Bay, with a small cargo _and_ for orders. That gives you everything, sir,' said he.
He pulled at his long whiskers with a complacent smile, now contemplating me and now Helga.
'Captain Bunting,' said I, 'this lady and myself are shipwrecked people, very eager indeed to get home. We have met with some hard adventures, and this lady, the daughter of the master of the barque _Anine_, has not only undergone the miseries of shipwreck, the hardships of a raft, and some days of wretchedness aboard that open boat alongside: she has been afflicted, besides, by the death of her father.'
'Very sorry indeed to hear it, miss,' said the Captain; 'but let this be your consolation, that every man's earthly father is bound to die at some time or other, but man's Heavenly Father remains with him for ever.'
Helga bowed her head. Language of this kind in the mouth of a plain sea-captain comforted me greatly as a warrant of goodwill and help.
'I'm sure,' said I, 'I may count upon your kindness to receive this lady and me and put us aboard the first homeward-bound ship that we may encounter.'
'Why, of course, it is my duty as a Christian man,' he answered, 'to be of service to all sorrowing persons that I may happen to fall in with. A Deal lugger--as I may presume your little ship to be--is no fit abode for a young lady of sweet-and-twenty----'