Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/278

252 Over the prow leaned Gysbert, and a man whose face she did not recognize.

“Oh, Jacqueline!” called her brother. “Didst thou think I had forsaken thee? Well, I’ve had the amazing good fortune to be picked up by Herr Captain Joris Fruytiers, and we came at once to get thee!” It  took but a moment to launch the little boat,  and take Jacqueline on board. As she crept into the boat, Gysbert noticed that the water  was just beginning to trickle over the window-sill into the room.

“Jacqueline, we weren’t a moment too soon, were we?” he remarked gravely. When the girl had been established in comfortable quarters in the roomy old canal-vessel, Gysbert told her the history of his adventures since he had been swept from her  sight. He had at first felt perfectly confident of finding an oar or a pole floating along in  the general confusion, so he did not jump out  and swim back as he might have done. But the current bore him on and on, and nothing