There came a chorus of cries from the boys as suddenly, out of the blackness, the wrecked schooner appeared bathed in light. For a moment only the search-light played upon her and then darkness shut down again.
“Square between the ledges she be,” exclaimed Bill. “Mainmast broke short off and fore-top-mast hangin’. Crew’s in the riggin’ and the sea’s breakin’ over her deck hard, mates. But her hull be all right yet, I cal’ate.” They hurried around the hill again, fighting the gale, until they were opposite the scene.
“I saw three or four men clinging to ropes,” said Bee to Jack in an awed voice. “Will they get them off, Jack?”
“Surely,” Jack answered. “I wonder if the life-boat can get alongside of her.”
“Aye, that she will,” replied Bill Glass. “Come around lee side o’ her, likely. She be one o’ Folsom’s boats, I cal’ate. A mighty long overhang for’ard, she has, an’ she might be the Jupiter.”
For what seemed many minutes there was no sign of the life-boat’s lights. Then the bow lantern glinted again near shore and was gone.
“Crawlin’ around to looard, she be,” said Bill Glass admiringly. “Eh, I’d like mighty well, mates, to be havin’ a hand down there myself!”
The search-light flooded the scene again, but this time its radiance disclosed only a part of the dark hull and the deck-house and a smother of water that seemed rushing in all directions. The disk of light again disappeared, and in its place shone, startlingly brighter and nearer at hand, the bow light of the rescuer. After that the watchers on land could only surmise what was taking place down there in that cauldron of seething waves and frantic winds, for the search-light did not show again. It was Bill Glass who pictured the scene for them, shouting to them as they clustered close about him.
“She be alongside now, mates, under the quarter likely. All hands leave ship! Aye, aye, twice I’ve heard that word, mates; once off Sable Island an’ once ’most in sight o’ port. They be climbin’ down in the life-boat now, I cal’ate, an’ the skipper’s got his log-book an’ his gold watch an’ maybe a trinket or two. All hands to the life-boat! Eh, they won’t need much tellin’! Thankful to go, they be, I cal’ate.”