Young Atkins had clambered back to the boat. He sat there in the hot sunshine, his face in his hands, sobbing like a woman. 

He felt that it was all his fault He knew he could never be able to face Chris again. Over and over in his mind rang the tragic words: "And she was only married yesterday! Only married yesterday!" 

At that moment he would gladly have given his life for hers. He felt that he would not go on living if she had gone. 

And then a sudden wild shout went up from the crowds on the beach. Young Atkins looked up, not daring to hope, and there in the sea, only a few yards from the boat, the rough dark head of Feathers appeared above the smooth water, swimming strongly with one arm and supporting a small, helpless object with the other. 

He seemed to have forgotten the boat, for he made straight for the shore, and though eager men waded out to his help, and a dozen pairs of arms were stretched out to take his burden from him, he shook his head and held her jealously. 

"Beauty and the beast!" someone whispered as the tall, ugly man waded ashore with the girl's limp body in his arms. 

Perhaps he heard, for at any rate a faint, grim smile crossed his dark face as he laid her down on the warm sands. 

There was a doctor amongst the crowd, and a little group closed about her, chafing her limbs, working her arms up and down, frantically trying to beat life back into the inert little body. 

42 Feathers stood by breathing hard, the water dripping from him. 

42

He kept his eyes fixed on Marie's deathly face. 

A woman in the crowd began to cry, "Poor child! Poor child!" For Marie Celeste looked only a child as she lay there, her wet hair tumbled all around her. 

"It's too late, she's gone!" someone else said, hopelessly, and Feathers turned like a lion. 

"It's not too late," he thundered. He went down on his knees beside her, exhausted as he was, and worked like a giant to save her, and all the time he was wondering what Chris would do, what Chris would say, and if he would be expected to break the news to him. 

And then, after a long time, a little 

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