say nobody could have done it. Then something split: I really cannot say
whether it was the mast, or the bowsprit, or the centre-board, but
whatever it was, it hurt Mr. Langenau so much that for a moment he was
stunned. And then Kilian cannot see why he wasn't drowned. When he came
to himself he was still holding the rudder in his hand.
The other arm was useless from the falling of--this thing that
split--upon it. And so the boat was floundering about in the gale till
it got righted, and it was Mr. Langenau's presence of mind that saved
him and the boat, for he never let go the rudder, and controlled her as
far as he could, though he did not know where he was going, the
blackness was so great, and the flashes did not show him the shore; and
he was like one placed in the midst of a frightful sea wakened out of a
dream, owing to the blow and the unconsciousness which followed.
Then Richard came upon the stage as hero; he and one of the men had gone
out in the only boat at hand, a very small one, toward the speck, which,
by the flashes of lightning, he saw out upon the river. It was almost
impossible to overhaul her, and it could not have been done at the rate
she was going, of course; but then occurred that accident which rendered
Mr. Langenau unconscious, and which brought things to a standstill for a
moment. Kalian said we did not know anything about the storm up here at
the house; that more than one tree had been struck within a few feet of
him on the shore. The river was surging; the wind was furious; no one
could imagine what it was who had not witnessed it, and he, for his
part, never expected to see Richard come back to land. But Richard did
come back, and brought back the disabled sail-boat and the injured man.
That was the end of the story; which thrilled us all very much, as we
knew the heroes, and had one of them before us, ghastly pale but
uncomplaining.
It seemed as if the doctor never would come! We were women, and we
naturally looked to the coming of the doctor as the end of all the
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