there was a suppressed scream and immediately the outer door was
unlocked, the chain removed, and the bolts withdrawn. This was followed
by the heavy tramp of men in the passage below, and a wild shriek from
Mrs Foster.

Mrs Laker, still standing with uplifted arms in the middle of the
bedroom, and livid with terror, glared round in search of a place of
refuge, and gasped horribly. Her eye fell on the bed from which her
mistress had issued. With a spring that would have done her credit in
the days of her girlhood, she plunged into it, head first, and rolled
herself tight up in the clothes, where she lay, quaking and listening
intently.

"It's only a cut on the head, and a little blood, ma'am, don't be
alarmed," said the gruff voice of Bluenose, as the footsteps ascended
the stair, and approached the bedroom.

"Cut" and "blood" were the only words in this speech which made any
impression on poor Mrs Laker, who trembled so violently that the
curtains around her shook again.

"Lay him in my bed," said Mrs Foster, in an agitated voice.

"W'y, the bed's all alive--O!" exclaimed Bluenose, in surprise.

"O Laker! what _are_ you doing there? get out, quick."

"Mercy, good men, mercy; I--"

The sentence was cut short by a wild yell, as her eye fell on the pale
and bloody face of Guy. She tumbled, clothes and all, over the side of
the bed in a dead faint, and rolled, in a confused white heap, to the
very feet of her astounded brother, Captain Bluenose.

"Well, if this don't beat Trafalgar all to sticks!" exclaimed the
Captain.

"Come, attend to Guy," said Bax, in a deep, commanding voice.

He lifted up Mrs Laker and the bed-clothes as if she had been a large
washing, and carried her down to her own apartment,--guided by Tommy
Bogey, who knew the way,--where he placed her in bed, and left her to
recover as she best might.

Bax had taken the precaution to despatch a messenger for a doctor before
they left the beach, so that Guy's hurt was soon examined, dressed, and
pronounced to be a mere trifle which rest would heal in a few days.
Indeed, Guy recovered consciousness soon after being brought into the
cottage, and told his mother with his own lips that he was "quite well."
This, and the doctor's assurances, so relieved the good lady, that she
at once transferred much of her anxious care to the others who had been
wrecked along with her son.

Lucy was placed in the hands of the sympathetic Amy Russell, and
condu