“You’re too modest, Benjamin, an’ that’s a fault every boy don’t have, I’m sorry to say. Now about that uniform of yours. You didn’t so much as ask me when it was to be sent out to the station.”
“It wouldn’t have looked very well to be in a hurry when some one makes me such a splendid present.”
“Oh, it wouldn’t, eh? Well, the toggery wasn’t for me, therefore I had no call to be so bashful. The uniform is to be ready in four days, and about that time Tom Downey will be goin’ into town. The other clothes are to be finished in a week. When they come we’ll—Hello, what’s that steamer layin’ off there for?”
The dory was almost within sight of the station when Sam Hardy ceased rowing very suddenly to gaze at a steamer which appeared to be at anchor a mile or more off the shore, and Benny was wholly at a loss to understand why his companion had become so thoroughly excited.
“She don’t seem to be in any trouble,” he ventured to say, and Sam settling down to the oars as if believing he had a severe task before him, replied:
“Her captain is huntin’ for it, if he comes to anchor in that place without precious good reasons. A shoal makes out just there, an’ I’ve seen two good vessels go to pieces on it. That steamer is aground, Benny!”
There was nothing startling to the lad in this announcement. The craft lay as if afloat; the wind was not strong enough to raise a very heavy sea, and nothing indicated any sudden change in the weather.
“I’ll admit that it don’t mean very much now, lad,” the surfman continued as if reading his companion’s thoughts; “but on this coast at this time of the year, no one can say when everything may be changed. There! The captain is beginning to understand that matters ain’t altogether lovely.”
The steamer’s whistle had begun to sound a whistle that help of some kind was required, and Benny believed the captain was calling upon the life-saving crew for assistance, until Sam said:
“She’s whistlin’ for a tug; but with the wind in this quarter it ain’t likely to do much good, unless she is sighted by one.”