Your actual preserver was a young girl.

The instant they were safe, Polly, like a regular heroine, threw herself into the arms of her dishevelled preserver, who of course was Van, and would have refreshed herself with hysterics if the sight of Toady hadn't steadied her.

On recovering his thoughts, the Signor Grimaldi, too, felt certain there had been no mockery in the conduct of their inexplicable preserver, for a hot tear had fallen on his hand ere it was liberated.

How he laughed to himself while he felt the pliant life-preserver coiled in his great-coat pocketthe long, keen, murderous knife resting against his heart.