It was but a step and a spring for him, and with a lurch he gained the deck of the wreck.
"By jiminy, boys, mother thought ye was all killed! Has them rats been botherin' ye?
Ye oughter broke the heads of 'em.

Where did they get that plank?
Come 'shore, did it?
Here, Tod, catch hold of it; I jes' wanted a piece o' floorin' like that.

Why, ye're all het up, Archie! Come, son, come to dinner; ye'll git cooled off, and mother's got a mess o' clams for ye.

Never mind 'bout the ladder; I'll lift it down." On the way over to the cabin, Fogarty and Tod carrying the plank and Archie walking beside them, the fisherman gleaned from the boys the details of the fight.

Archie had recovered the captain's knife and it was now in his hand.
"Called ye a 'pick-up' did he, the rat, and said ye didn't have no mother.