“Who, me?” Captain Eri laughed. “I could keep this up for a week. There ain't any sea in here. If we was outside now, 'twould be diff'rent, maybe.”
They hit the beach almost exactly at the right spot, a feat which the passenger considered a miracle, but which the Captain seemed to take as a matter of course. They beached and anchored the dory, and, bending almost double as they faced the wind, plowed through the sand to the back door of the station. There was comparatively little snow here on the outer beach—the gale had swept it nearly all away.
Mr. Langley met them as they tramped into the hall. The old gentleman was glad to see his assistant, for he had begun to fear that the latter might have tried to row over during the evening, and met with disaster. As they sat round the stove in his room he said, “We don't need any wrecks inside the beach. We shall have enough outside, I'm afraid. I hear there is one schooner in trouble now.”
“That so?” asked Captain Eri. “Where is she?”
“On the Hog's Back shoal, they think. One of the life-saving crew told McLaughlin that they saw her last night, when the gale first began, trying to make an offing, and that wreckage was coming ashore this morning. Captain Davis was going to try to reach her with the boat, I believe.”
“I should like to be at the life-saving station when they land,” said Ralph. “It would be a new experience for me. I've seen the crew drill often enough, but I have never seen them actually at work.”
“What d'you say if we go down to the station?” asked the Captain. “That is, if Mr. Langley here can spare you.”
“Oh, I can spare him,” said the superintendent. “There is nothing of importance to be done here just now. But it will be a terrible walk down the beach this morning.”
“Wind 'll be at our backs, and we're rigged for it, too. What d'you say, Mr. Hazeltine?”
Ralph was only too glad of the opportunity to see, at least, the finish of a rescuing expedition, and he said so. So they got into the oilskins again, pulled their “sou'westers” down over their ears, and started on the tramp to the life-saving station.