Emily , who had said nothing , now spoke harshly . `` Lynde is right , Mr. Douglas . You have no right to risk your life for a stranger . My advice is to go to the village for help , and Lynde and I will make a fire and watch here . That is all that can be expected of you or us . '' Alan paid no heed to Emily . Very tenderly he loosened Lynde 's hold on his arm and looked into her quivering face . `` You know it is my duty , Lynde , '' he said gently . `` If anything can be done for that poor man , I am the only one who can do it . I will come back safe , please God . Be brave , dear . '' Lynde , with a little moan of resignation , turned away . Old Emily looked on with a face of grim disapproval as Alan waded out into the surf that boiled and swirled around him in a mad whirl of foam . The shower of sleet had again slackened , and the wreck half a mile away , with its solitary figure , was dearly visible . Alan beckoned to the man to jump overboard and swim ashore , enforcing his appeal by gestures that commanded haste before the next shower should come . For a few moments it seemed as if the seaman did not understand or lacked the courage or power to obey . The next minute he had dropped from the rigging on the crest of a mighty wave and was being borne onward to the shore . Speedily the backwater was reached and the man , sucked down by the swirl of the wave , threw up his arms and disappeared . Alan dashed in , groping , swimming ; it seemed an eternity before his hand clutched the drowning man and wrenched him from the undertow . And , with the seaman in his arms , he staggered back through the foam and dropped his burden on the sand at Lynde 's feet .
Alan was reeling from exhaustion and chilled to the marrow , but he thought only XXXXX the man he had rescued .
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