with me, doctor? What has happened?"

"Only that you have been drowned; and that you have kept the general and
myself busy, for two mortal hours and more, practising artificial
respiration, before you would consent to come back to life. That is
all!"

Then I remembered everything, and began to wonder by what means I had
been recovered from those profound depths wherein my last conscious
moments had been spent. I put the question to Scudamore, and he
answered:

"Oh, as to that, we had no difficulty. There was a light heaving-line
attached by one end to the hawser, and in the other end you had knotted
a bowline which you passed over your shoulders and under your armpits.
We simply hauled you aboard by means of that."

"And how long did the barque live after I left her?" I asked.

"How long?" repeated the doctor, in surprise. "Why, not ten seconds!
She was in the very act of foundering, stern first, when you jumped; and
it was undoubtedly her suction that did the mischief. You must have
been dragged fathoms deep by her; and but for the line round you, you
would probably never have come to the surface again."

"And what of the French people? Are they all right?" I demanded.

"Yes; thanks to you, they are," answered Scudamore. "The man you jumped
overboard after was the worst case; but, luckily, I had succeeded in
resuscitating him before you were hauled aboard. You have saved fifteen
human lives to-day! That is something to be proud of, is it not? And
now, no more talking at present; what you require is sleep; and if you
do not mind being left alone a minute or two I will go to my cabin and
mix you a draught that will give you a good long nap, from which I have
no doubt you will awake feeling as well as ever."

So saying, the medico softly withdrew, quietly closing the cabin-door
behind him, only to return a few minutes later with a draught of
decidedly pungent taste, which, at his command, I tossed off instanter.
Whether it was due to the potency of the draught, or to exhaustion, or
to both combined, I know not, but certain it is that as I sank back upon
the pillow my eyes closed, and almost instantly I went drifting off into
the land of dreams.

When I next awoke it was well on toward evening, for the light had grown
so dim that I could only indistinctly discern the various objects about
the cabin. But there seemed to have been no abatement of the gale, for
the ship was rolling and plunging as wil