They might get to shore an hour or two sooner than if they had not seen it.
"If the cramp in this leg had kept off five minutes longer," he said, "I would have reached that big hole, and then, if I could have climbed over the top of the rocks, I could have come down on the other side to the front door, and asked Maka to get me my clothes, so I would not have had to swim back at all." "That will do," said the captain.

"And now that you are dressed, you can go inside and get me that woollen shirt and trousers that I use for a pillow, for I must take off these wet things." When the boy came back with the clothes, the captain told him that he need not say anything to his sister or Mrs.Cliff about the great danger he had been in, but before he had finished his injunction Ralph interrupted him.
"Oh, I have told them that already," said he.

"They wanted to know where I had been, and it did not take a minute to tell them what a splendid swimmer you are, and how you came over after me without taking as much as two seconds to think about it.

And I let them know, too, that it was a mighty dangerous thing for you to do.

If I had been one of those fellows who were not used to the water, and who would grab hold of any one who came to save them, we might both have gone to the bottom together." The captain smiled grimly.