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.  Yet I could not talk with Ratsey, nor answer any of his questions, though another time I should have put a thousand to him myself; and he seeing ’twas no good sat by me in silence, using a spy-glass now and again to make out the things floating at sea.  As the day grew the men left the fire at the back of the beach, and came down to the sea-front where the waves were continually casting up fresh spoil.  And there all worked with a will, not each one for his own hand, but all to make a common hoard which should be divided afterwards.

Among the flotsam moving outside the breakers I could see more than one dark ball, like black buoys, bobbing up and down, and lifting as the wave came by:  and knew them for the heads of drowned men.  Yet though I took Ratsey’s glass and scanned all carefully enough, I could make nothing of them, but saw the pinnace floating bottom up, and farther out another boat deserted and down to her gunwale in the water.  ’Twas midday before the first body was cast up, when the sky was breaking a little, and a thin and watery sun trying to get through, and afterwards three other bodies followed.  They were part of the pinnace’s crew, for all had the iron ring on the left wrist, as Ratsey told me, who went down to see them, though he said nothing of the branded ‘Y’, and they were taken up and put under some sheeting at the back of the beach, there to lie till a grave should be made ready for them.

Then I felt something that told me he was coming and saw a body rolled over in the surf, and knew it for the one I sought.  ’Twas nearest me he was flung up, and I ran down the beach, caring nothing for the white foam, nor for the under-tow, and laid hold of him:  for had he not left the rescue-line last night, and run down into the surf to save my worthless life?  Ratsey was at my side, and so between us we drew him up out of the running foam, and then I wrung the water from his hair, and wiped his face and, kneeling down there, kissed him.

When they saw that we had got a body, others of the men came up, and stared to see me handle him so tenderly.  But when they knew, at last, I was a stranger and had the iron ring upon my wrist, and a ‘Y’ burned upon my cheek, they stared the more; until the tale went round that I was he who had come through the surf last night alive, and this poor body was my friend who had laid down his life for me.  Then