It was really not until she sank down beside him that she realized how great her anxiety had been. Feeling his arms about her, hearing the sound of his voice, was almost more than she could bear. She hid her face on his shoulder, and he smoothed her hair.
"Joan," he said suddenly, "you're all wet! Your jumper and everything! Did the boat capsize?"
She told him of her landing through the surf, and he made her go and change into dry things. She sat beside him then, telling him of the journey to the Coast Guard Station and trying to keep him as much as possible from talking. Finally his great weariness mastered his anxiety for his parents, and he drifted off into an uneasy sleep, holding Joan's hand. Exhausted, herself, her own head drooped lower and lower, till her cheek lay against Garth's hand, and she slept fitfully.
Faintly, dawn began to break, and the first light shouldered darkness away from the horizon. Through the quiet air came the unmistakable rhythm of the surf-boat's big motor. Joan, awake instantly, tiptoed from Garth's room and flew down the stairs. She heard a cheery voice saying, "You go along in now;
