Pagina 175 di 416

"Take him into my cabin," ordered Tanner. "Johnson, bring hot

water and rags. Cookee, make some strong soup. If there's any

life in him we'll bring it back. On the jump, there!"

"Wal," said one man, when Code had been carried below, "I thought

my halibut was high line to-day, but the skipper beat me out in

the end."

CHAPTER XVI

A STAGGERING BLOW

"Here is something my father just asked me to give you."

Nellie held out to Code the packet that she had discovered in the

skipper's drawer several days before. Code, seated on the roof of

the cabin in the only loose chair aboard the Rosan, and wrapped

in blankets, took the sealed bundle curiously.

He looked at the round, feminine handwriting across the envelope,

and failed to evince any flash of guilt or intelligence.

It was three days after Code's rescue by the Rosan and the first

that he had felt any of his old strength coming back to him.