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 door in one bound, without even thinking of his wife and child. He wanted to get the men, so he got 'em."

Jim stopped, with an air of perfect finality, and puffed at his pipe serenely.

"I knew he wouldn't tell this story properly!" cried Elspeth. "What's the use of being a book-writing person, if you go and telescope your thrilling climax like that? I shall collaborate in this tale." She waved a knitting-needle. "When this keeper jumped out at the door," she related, "he was nearly blown down. His short oilskin coat filled with wind and behaved like a balloon-sail. The rock was covered with salt ice, but the keeper wriggled to the landing, launched his dory, and slid into it. His wife, you may imagine, was feeling so happy! For, considering that the whaleboat had been swamped, the chances for the dory didn't seem much greater. The seas were very big, but the boat slid up and down over them very neatly. The keeper's big woollen mittens were soaked immediately; then they froze, and his face froze, also. He shouted to the men in the water, and they shouted faintly in answer. He pulled steadily at his oars, and the dory did her best, till presently he came up with the men.