Common humanity demanded, too, that he should hastily examine each of the bodies in case life was not wholly extinct.
So he bent over the girl, noting with sudden wonder that, weak as she was, she had managed to refasten part of her bodice.
"You must permit me to carry you a little further inland," he explained gently.
Without another word he lifted her in his arms, marveling somewhat at the strength which came of necessity, and bore her some little distance, until a sturdy rock, jutting out of the sand, offered shelter from the wind and protection from the sea and its revelations.
"I am so cold, and tired," murmured Iris.

"Is there any water?
My throat hurts me." He pressed back the tangled hair from her forehead as he might soothe a child.
"Try to lie still for a very few minutes," he said.
"You have not long to suffer.

I will return immediately." His own throat and palate were on fire owing to the brine, but he first hurried back to the edge of the lagoon.

There were fourteen bodies in all, three women and eleven men, four of the latter being Lascars.

The women were saloon passengers whom he did not know.