and Ruthven, indeed, required no assistance. They were in no way
the worse for the adventure, but Childers was so weak that he was
unable to stand. He was carried up and laid on a fly, the others
sitting opposite, the driver having first taken the precaution of
removing the cushions.

There were among the crowd most of the boys from Dr. Parker's.
Goodall and Jackson had arrived nearly an hour and a half before,
and the news had spread like wildfire. Bats and balls had been
thrown down and every one had hurried to the beach. Goodall and
his companion had already related the circumstance of their being
cut off by the water and taken round the point by Frank; and as
Ruthven on jumping out had explained to his comrades who flocked
round to shake his hand, "I owe my life to Hargate," the enthusiasm
reached boiling point, and Frank had difficulty in taking his place
in the fly, so anxious were all to shake his hand and pat him on
the shoulder. Had it not been for his anxiety to get home as soon
as possible, and his urgent entreaties, they would have carried him
on their shoulders in triumph through the town. They drove first to
the school, where Childers was at once carried up to a bed, which
had been prepared with warm blankets in readiness; Ruthven needed
only to change his clothes.

The moment they had left the fly Frank drove straight home, and
was delighted at finding, from his mother's exclamation of surprise
as he alighted from the cab, that she had not been suffering any
anxiety, no one, in the general excitement, having thought of taking
the news to her. In answer to her anxious inquiries he made light
of the affair, saying only that they had stupidly allowed themselves
to be cut off by the sea and had got a ducking. It was not, indeed,