d limp body
that the doctor was working over, and then stepped to where Tod now
crouched beside his friend, the one he had loved all his life. The
young surfman's strong body was shaking with the sobs he could no
longer restrain.

"It's rough, Tod," said the captain, in a choking voice, which grew
clearer as he talked on. "Almighty rough on ye and on all of us. You
did what you could--ye risked yer life for him, and there ain't nobody
kin do more. I wouldn't send ye out again, but there's work to do. Them
two men of Cap'n Ambrose's is drowned, and they'll come ashore
some'er's near the inlet, and you and Parks better hunt 'em up. They
live up to Barnegat, ye know, and their folks'll be wantin' 'em." It
was strange how calm he was. His sense of duty was now controlling him.

Tod had raised himself to his feet when the captain had begun to speak
and stood with his wet sou'wester in his hand.

"Been like a brother to me," was all he said, as he brushed the tears
from his eyes and went to join Parks.

The captain watched Tod's retreating figure for a moment, and bending
again over Archie's corpse, stood gazing at the dead face, his hands
folded across his girth--as one does when watching a body being slowly
lowered into a grave.

"I loved ye, boy," Jane heard him say between her sobs. "I loved ye!
You knowed it, boy. I hoped to tell ye so out loud so everybody could
hear. Now they'll never know."

Straightening himself up, he walked firmly to the open door about which
the people pressed, held back by the line of surfmen headed by
Polhemus, and calmly surveyed the crowd. Close to the opening, trying
to press her way in to Jane, his eyes fell on Lucy. Behind her stood
Max Feilding.

"Friends," said the captain, in a low, restrained voice, every trace of
his grief and excitement gone, "I've got to ask ye to git considerable
way back and keep still. We got Doctor John here and Miss Jane, and
there ain't nothin' ye kin do. When there is I'll call ye. Polhemus,
you and Green see this order is obeyed."

Again he hesitated, then raising his eyes over the group nearest the
door, he beckoned to Lucy, pushed her in ahead of him, caught the
swinging doors in his hands, and shut them tight. This done, he again
dropped on his knees beside the doctor and the now breathing man.

CHAPTER XXII

THE CLAW OF THE SEA-PUSS

With the closing of the doors the murmur of the crowd, the dull glare
of the gray sky, and the thras