that I've been away.

"And you really thought of your poor cousin? Be sure that he, too,
thought of you, and offered up nightly his weak prayers for your safety
(doubtless, not without avail) to those saints, to whom would that
you--"

"Halt there, coz. If they are half as good fellows as you and I take
them for, they'll help me without asking."

"They have helped you, Amyas."

"Maybe; I'd have done as much, I'm sure, for them, if I 'd been in their
place."

"And do you not feel, then, that you owe a debt of gratitude to them;
and, above all, to her, whose intercessions have, I doubt not, availed
for your preservation? Her, the star of the sea, the all-compassionate
guide of the mariner?"

"Humph!" said Amyas. "Here's Frank; let him answer."

And, as he spoke, up came Frank, and after due greetings, sat down
beside them on the ridge.

"I say, brother, here's Eustace trying already to convert me; and
telling me that I owe all my luck to the Blessed Virgin's prayers for
me.

"It may be so," said Frank; "at least you owe it to the prayers of that