Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Land That Time Forgot Edgar Rice Burroughs

Toward morning, I must have dozed, though it seemed to me at the time that I had lain awakefor days, instead of hours. When I finally opened my eyes, it was daylight, and the girl's hair wasin my face, and she was breathing normally. I thanked God for that. She had turned her headduring the night so that as I opened my eyes I saw her face not an inch from mine, my lips almosttouching hers. It was Nobs who finally awoke her. He got up, stretched, turned around a few times and laydown again, and the girl opened her eyes and looked into mine. Hers went very wide at first, andthen slowly comprehension came to her, and she smiled."You have been very good to me," she said, as I helped her to rise, though if the truth wereknown I was more in need of assistance than she; the circulation all along my left side seemingto be paralyzed entirely. "You have been very good to me." And that was the only mention sheever made of it; yet I know that she was thankful and that only reserve prevented her fromreferring to what, to say the least, was an embarrassing situation, however unavoidable. Shortly after daylight we saw smoke apparently coming straight toward us, and after a timewe made out the squat lines of a tug-one of those fearless exponents of England's supremacy ofthe sea that tows sailing ships into French and English ports. I stood up on a thwart and wavedmy soggy coat above my head. Nobs stood upon another and barked. The girl sat at my feetstraining her eyes toward the deck of the oncoming boat. "They see us," she said at last. "There isa man answering your signal." She was right. A lump came into my throat-for her sake ratherthan for mine. She was saved, and none too soon. She could not have lived through another nightupon the Channel; she might not have lived through the coming day. The tug came close beside us, and a man on deck threw us a rope. Willing hands dragged usto the deck, Nobs scrambling nimbly aboard without assistance. The rough men were gentle asmothers with the girl. Plying us both with questions they hustled her to the captain's cabin andme to the boiler-room. They told the girl to take off her wet clothes and throw them outside thedoor that they might be dried, and then to slip into the captain's bunk and get warm. They didn'thave to tell me to strip after I once got into the warmth of the boiler-room. In a jiffy, my clotheshung about where they might dry most quickly, and I myself was absorbing, through every pore, the welcome heat of the stifling compartment. They brought us hot soup and coffee, and thenthose who were not on duty sat around and helped me damn the Kaiser and his brood