“Let’s go see it!” Busy Izzy cried.
“If we can,” said Tom. “Is it possible, Miss Kate?”
Heavy’s aunt looked at the butler for information. He was one of those well-trained servants who make it their business to know everything.
“I can have the ponies put into the long buckboard. The young ladies can drive to the station; the young gentlemen can walk. It is not raining very hard at present.”
Mercy elected to remain in the house with Miss Kate. The other girls were just as anxious to go to the beach as the boys. There were no timid ones in the party.
But when they came down, dressed in rainy-weather garments, and saw the man standing at the ponies’ heads, glistening in wet rubber, if one had withdrawn probably all would have given up the venture. The boys had already gone on ahead, and the ship’s gun sounded mournfully through the wild night, at short intervals.
They piled into the three seats of the buckboard, Ruth sitting beside the driver. The ponies dashed away along the sandy road. It was two miles to the life saving station. They passed the three boys when they were only half way to their destination.
“Tell ’em not to save all the people from the wreck till we get there!” shouted Tom Cameron.
None of the visitors to Lighthouse Point realized the seriousness of the happening as yet. They were yet to see for the first time a good ship battering her life out against the cruel rocks.
Nor did the girls see the wreck at first, for a pall of darkness lay upon the sea. There were lights in the station and a huge fire of driftwood burned on the beach. Around this they saw figures moving, and Heavy said, as she alighted: