He would not even stop when they came to the life-saving station, and Katherine had to roll off as best she could, landing in the sand on her face.
“Whoa, there!” shouted half a dozen voices, and the surfmen who stood anxiously waiting for the return of the patrol caught his bridle and brought him to a standstill. Katherine panted out her message, and then refusing the invitation of the keeper 237 to go inside the station, she followed the crew as they dragged the beach wagon to the point on the shore opposite the wreck.
From their various shelters along the way the rest of the Winnebagos came out and joined her, all eager to see the work of rescuing the stranded passengers.
Hinpoha exclaimed in dismay when the small cannon was brought out and aimed at the ship. “They’re going to shoot the passengers!” she cried, clutching the Captain by the arm.
“No, they aren’t,” the Captain assured her hastily. “They’re going to shoot the line out to the ship. That’s the way they rig up the breeches-buoy. Now you watch. I’m going to see if I can help. That fellow with the twisted knee is out of it.”
Without getting in the men’s way, the Captain watched his chance, and when it came time to man the whip that hauled the breeches-buoy out to the vessel he took a hand with the crew and pulled lustily. After that he worked right along with the men and they were glad of his help, for the loss of the one surfman was holding them back. The other boys also did what they could to help, and the bringing to shore of the passengers proceeded as rapidly as possible.
The memory of that night was ever after like a confused dream in the minds of the Winnebagos and Sandwiches; a nightmare of howling wind and dashing 238 waves and inky darkness out of which came ever increasing numbers of people to throng the shore.
The wrecking of a passenger vessel was a much more serious matter than the destruction of a freighter, where there would only be the crew to bring ashore. The Huronic carried two hundred passengers and as it was impossible for any boat to get alongside of her to take them off, they all had to be taken ashore in the breeches-buoy or the life car. Other lines were shot out after the first one and other rescue apparatus set up. From the position of her lights it could be seen that the Huronic was listing farther to the leeward all the time. The life savers worked untiringly and the throng of rescued grew apace.
Entirely forgetting their own fatigue from their long tramp against the wind, the Winnebagos and Sandwiches moved among the crowd, lending sweaters, coats and scarfs to shivering women, taking crying children in tow and finding their distracted parents, and doing a hundred and one little services that helped materially to bring a semblance of order out of the wild confusion.
Hinpoha had just restored a curly-haired three-year old to his hysterical mamma when a man came up to her and said, “Will you bring your flashlight over here, please? My wife has dropped her watch.”