At that moment a rocket went streaking up toward heaven and a second later a slender rope fell writhing across the deck, where Roy stood swinging a torch.
"Hurray!" called Hugh, seizing the rope just as Norton, at the captain's orders, also grasped it. "Hurray! It's the breeches buoy!"
It will be recalled by those who followed the adventures of "The Boy Scouts of the Life Saving Crew," that Hugh and Billy, Chester and Alec had been at the Red Key Station on the night of a thrilling rescue. They had accompanied and in a slight way assisted the life-savers on their patrols, at the launching of the life boat, and in the final use of the breeches buoy.
It was most exciting to return to the scene of their memorable experience in this unexpected fashion.
The boys hauled willingly on the rope and soon it was taut, the odd conveyance swinging by the deck railing.
"You go first, Mark. While yer father knows my knock and realizes that I didn't give my danger signal, still he may be a mite anxious to see you, knowin' you was comin' home with me on the Arrow."
Obeying the captain's directions and grasping his waterproof bundle of clothes, Mark thrust his legs into the breeches buoy, the signal was given, and the trip through the waves began.
Soon the strange vehicle was back again, and this time Chester, buttoning his oilskins about him closely, was ordered ashore.
In a brief time Hugh, and then Billy, Alec, and Norton had followed the others.
Meanwhile, Captain Vinton, with Dave's help, had made everything shipshape on board the Arrow. Then, sending Dave shoreward in the breeches buoy, the captain himself, true to tradition, waited to be the last to leave his ship.