At that moment they saw the lifeboat lifted upon another huge wave. She was a full cable’s length from the shore, advancing very slowly. In the glare of the Coston light the anxious spectators saw her swerve to port to escape a huge timber which charged upon her.
The girls screamed. The great stick struck the lifeboat a glancing blow. In an instant she swung broadside to the waves, and then rolled over and over in the trough of the sea.
A chorus of shouts and groans went up from the crowd on shore. The lifeboat and her courageous crew had disappeared.
CHAPTER IX
THE GIRL IN THE RIGGING
“Oh! isn’t it awful!” cried Helen, clinging to Ruth Fielding. “I wish I hadn’t come.”
“They’re lost!” quavered Mary Cox. “They’re drowned!”
But Heavy was more practical. “They can’t drown so easily–with those cork-vests on ’em. There! the boat’s righted.”
It was a fact. Much nearer the shore, it was true, but the lifeboat was again right side up. They saw the men creep in over her sides and seize the oars which had been made fast to her so that they could not be lost.
But the lifeboat was not so buoyant, and it was plain that she had been seriously injured. Cap’n Abinadab dared not go on to the wreck.