“’Their perilous position having been observed from Anscombe cliffs, Mr. G. F. Underwood of Vale Leston heroically’ (i.e. humbugically) ’made his way out to their assistance, while a boat was put off by the Coast-guard, and that of Mr. Carter, fisherman, from Rockquay was launched somewhat later.’  We could not see either of them, you know.  My eye, this is coming it strong!  ’The young baronet generously insisted that the little fisher-boy, David Blake, who had accompanied them, should first be placed in safety-—’”

“Didn’t he?” exclaimed Anna.  “I saw, and I wondered, but I thought it was his doing.”

“You saw?”

“Yes, in the Coast-guard’s telescope.”

“Oh!  That is a new feature in the case!”

“Then he did not insist?” said Mrs. Grinstead.

“It was with the wrong side of his mouth.”

“But why did you send the fisher-boy first, when after all his life was less important?” exclaimed Anna, breaking forth at last.

“First, for the reason that I strove to impress on ’the youthful baronet,’ Noblesse oblige.  Secondly, that Davy knew how to make his way along the rocks, and also knew where to find the Preventive station.  I could leave him to get on, as I could not have done with the precious Adrian, and that gave a much better chance for us all.  It was swimming work by the time I got back, and by that time I thought the best alternative for any of us was to keep hold as long as we could, and then keep afloat as best we might till we were picked up.  Your boy was the hero of it all.  Adrian was so angry with me for my disrespect that I could hardly have got him to listen to me if Fergus had not made him understand, that to let himself be passive and be floated by me till the boats came up was the only thing to be done.  There was one howl when he had to let go his beloved aralia, but he showed his soldier blood, and behaved most manfully.”

“I am most thankful to hear it,” said his father, “and especially thankful to you.”

“Oh! there was not much real danger,” said Gerald lightly, “to any one who could swim.”

“But Adrian could not,” said Anna.  “Oh!  Gerald, what do we not owe to you?”

“I must be off,” said Sir Jasper; “I must see about a new jacket for my boy.  By the bye, do you know how the little Davy fared in the matter of clothes?”

“Better than any of us,” said Gerald.  “He was far too sharp to go mud-larking in anything that would be damaged, and had his boots safe laid up in a corner.  I wish mine were equally safe.”

Sir Jasper’s purchases were not confined to boots and jacket, but as compensation for his hard words included a certain cabinet full of drawers that had long been Fergus’s cynosure.

Anna and her aunt were much concerned at what was said of Adrian, and still more at the boastful account that he seemed to have given; but then something, as Mrs. Grinstead observed, must be allowed for the reporter’s satisfaction in having interviewed a live baronet.  Each of the parties concerned had one hero, and if the Merrifields’ was Fergus, to their own great surprise and satisfaction, Aunt Cherry was very happy over her own especial boy, Gerald, and certainly it was an easier task than to accept “the youthful baronet” at his own valuation or that of the reporter.