Jack arose. “Come on,” he shouted. They staggered ahead again, Jack leading the way upward until they were at the edge of the grove. There, while Hal and Bee crouched beside him, Jack braced himself against a tree and waved the lantern back and forth in long sweeps of his arm. Again the cannon boomed and again a rocket trailed into the night. Bee thought once he heard a hail from the schooner, but he could not be certain for the wind was full of strange sounds and voices. For several minutes Jack waved. Then, summoning the others, he led them back around the hill. They went almost at a run, stumbling over rocks, tripping over bushes, the wind behind them seemingly bent on blowing them off the island. Hal wondered how they could ever find the tent again, but Jack led them to it unerringly and they staggered in, breathless and white-faced. Jack placed the lantern down and sank to his bed. No one spoke for a moment. Then—
“Isn’t there anything we can do, Jack?” faltered Hal huskily. “Could we get to them in the launch?”
Jack shook his head. “Let me think a minute,” he said. He placed his elbows on his knees and sank his chin in his hands, gazing at the ground. Bee, nervously buttoning and unbuttoning his jacket, watched impatiently. Finally Jack beckoned and they gathered close to him.
“I guess,” he said, “the only thing we can do is get word to the life savers. Maybe they’ve seen the rockets already and are on the way, but there’s no way of being sure about that. There’s no patrol in summer and I guess the only place they’d see the signals from is the Fort.”
“Where’s the nearest station?” asked Hal.
“Greenhaven; Harbor Beach,” said Jack.
“But that’s miles away! They’d never get here!”
“They could do it in an hour, I think. They’d come straight down the harbor and through the canal into Eight-Fathom Cove. They have a motor boat and it can go pretty fast. They’ll have an awful time off Toller’s Sands, though, and maybe they won’t dare to try it. But I guess it’s up to us to get word to them. There’s nothing else we can do, is there?”
Hal and Bee shook their heads. Through the storm came the boom of the cannon again. Bee moved impatiently.