He would surely come in time, for I had seen others come
ashore that way. For when the _Bataviaman_ went on the beach, I stood as
near her as our rescuers had stood to us last night, and there were some
aboard who took the fatal leap from off her bows and tried to battle
through the surf. I was so near them I could mark their features and read
the wild hope in their faces at the first, and then the under-tow took
hold of them, and never one that saved his life that day. And yet all
came to beach at last, and I knew them by their dead faces for the men I
had seen hoping against hope 'twixt ship and shore; some naked and some
clothed, some bruised and sorely beaten by the pebbles and the sea, and
some sound and untouched--all came to beach at last.
So I sat and waited for him to come; and none of the beach-walkers said
anything to me, the Moonfleet men thinking I came from Ringstave, and the
Langton men that I belonged to Moonfleet; and both that I had marked some
cask at sea for my own and was waiting till it should come in. Only after
a while Master Ratsey joined me, and sitting down by me, begged me to eat
bread and meat that he had brought. Now I had little heart to eat, but
took what he gave me to save myself from his importunities, and having
once tasted was led by nature to eat all, and was much benefited thereby.
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