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58 more about the precise nature of his dauntless act, which he at once proceeded to do.

"I should very much like to know," he suggested, "what your sensations were at that critical moment."

"My sensations? I hardly know," she said. "I remember leaning over the—bulwarks, is it?" (Peter said it was bulwarks)—"the bulwarks, watching a sailor in a little balcony below, who was doing something with a long line"

"Heaving the lead," said Peter; "so he was—go on!"

He was intensely excited; it was all plain enough: she had lost her balance and fallen overboard; he had plunged in, and gallantly kept her above water till help arrived. He had always known he was capable of this sort of thing; now he had proved it!

"—When all at once," she continued, "I felt myself roughly dragged back by somebody—that was you! I was rather angry for the moment, for it did seem quite a liberty for a total stranger to take,—when, that very instant, I saw the line with a great heavy lump of lead at the end of it whirled round exactly