He had--
"Thar was an awful row," he went on. "I ran out on the taffrail,
and there a dozen yards away was that purty creature, that peart
gal, and--I--"
"You jumped for her," I said, hastily.
"No!" he said gravely. "I let the other man do the jumping. I
sorter looked on."
I stared at him in astonishment.
"No," he went on, seriously. "He was the man who jumped--that was
just then his 'put'--his line of business. You see, if I had
waltzed over the side of that ship, and cavoorted in, and flummuxed
round and finally flopped to the bottom, that other man would have
jumped nateral-like and saved her; and ez he was going to marry her
anyway, I don't exactly see where I'D hev been represented in the
transaction. But don't you see, ef, after he'd jumped and hadn't
got her, he'd gone down himself, I'd hev had the next best chance,
and the advantage of heving him outer the way. You see, you don't
understand me--I don't think you did in Californy."
"Then he did save her?"
"Of course. Don't you see she was all right.
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