“They don’t dare spend the time to go after the surf-boat, but will trust to what they can do with ropes from the shore. The wreckers have left enough gear behind to furnish each man with a life-line, and since there’s no longer any danger the lighter will strike the steamer, it won’t be a hard job to bring every fellow ashore. I’m still wonderin’ what made me jump when I saw the boat, Benny. It was a fool trick, after yonder hulk had taken such a turn as showed she’d strike a sandy bottom.”
“It was mighty lucky for me that you did come, sir.”
“Why, lad? I can’t do the first thing toward helpin’ us out of this plight, except by usin’ the steerin’-oar when we’re nearer in shore, an’ you may as well have been alone.”
“I’d have been terribly frightened; but now everything is all right.”
Sam gathered the boy in his arms for an instant, but made no reply, and during those few seconds it seemed as if the two were nearer in spirit than they had ever been before.
“She’s struck!” the surfman cried at length, referring to the lighter, and Benny saw a huge cloud of spray rise in the air as if against the base of a cliff.
“When we first went adrift, Joe Cushing figgered that the danger of bein’ washed away wouldn’t be very great, provided she went clear of the steamer, for the deck is so broad, and her depth so great, that the waves won’t make a clean breach over her. In their places, I’d take the chances of stayin’ there till the tide falls, rather than trust to a hand-rope through the surf.”
Sam continued to gaze first at the huge hulk and then at the shore, regardless of his own danger, until Benny recalled him to the fact that the life-boat was being driven directly toward a cliff of brown rocks a quarter of a mile beyond where the life savers ashore were stationed.
“Hold on where you are till I give the word,” Sam cried as he unshipped one of the spare oars from its beckets and swung it out over the stern. “I’m not certain one man can do much more than hold this boat before the wind, and if we find that she ain’t to be turned from her course, we’ll try the surf again.”