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“Do you get liberal pay for this work, may I ask?”

“Not very, sir, for with the mail carrying and my fish-selling I average about fifty dollars a month.”

“But your mother has other means of support?”

“No, sir; we pay no rent, as we live in Cliff Castle free for keeping it, and I have a good garden, and there is plenty of game and fish for the shooting and catching.”

“What do you do when it storms too hard to carry the mail?”

“I always go, sir, for my skiff is a lifeboat, and stands any weather.”

“How did you manage to come out to our aid?”

“I was on the cliff, sir, watching the storm, and saw you round the point and run for an anchorage. I know that anchors will not hold on the bottom of Hopeless Haven, and the currents in the bay make the sea very wild, so I determined to go out and pilot you into Cliff Castle harbor.”

“And swam out to us in the face of that storm?”

“Well, sir, I had not time to go to the bay and run out in my skiff, so I slipped down the bluff and jumped in, for it was not a very long swim, sir.”