Then, with a rattle, down came the accommodation ladder, and
strong-armed men, standing on its grating, dragged them one by one from
the death to which they had been so near. The last to be lifted up,
except Thompson, was Benita, round whom it was necessary to reeve a
rope.
"Any use?" asked the officer on the grating as he glanced at her quiet
form.
"Can't say; I hope so," answered Thompson. "Call your doctor." And
gently enough she was borne up the ship's side.
They wanted to cast off the boat, but Thompson remonstrated, and in the
end that also was dragged to deck. Meanwhile the news had spread,
and the awakened passengers of the _Castle_, clad in pyjamas,
dressing-gowns, and even blankets, were crowding round the poor
castaways or helping them to their cabins.
"I am a teetotaller," said second officer Thompson when he had made a
brief report to the captain of the _Castle_, "but if anyone will stand
me a whiskey and soda I shall be obliged to him."
IV
MR. CLIFFORD
Although the shock of the blow she had received upon her head was
sufficient to make her insensible for so many hours, Benita's injuries
were not of a really serious nature, for as it happened the falling
block, or whatever it may have been, had hit her forehead slantwise, and
not full, to which accident she owed it that, although the skin was
torn and the scalp bruised, her skull had escaped fracture.
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