"You can help drag the mortar, if you want to," replied the patrolman, "and one of you can build a fire in the stove in the next room. Take one of them lanterns, and you'll find wood and shavings alongside the stove."
Tom instantly volunteered to build the fire, although he was very anxious to be on the beach. The other boys helped as best they could in dragging the mortar, which was soon planted close to the surf, and opposite the wreck.
It had now grown so light that they could clearly make her out. She was a large bark. The crew could be seen in the fore rigging, where they had taken refuge. Her masts, with the exception of the foretop-gallant-mast, were still standing; but as the sea was making a clear breach over her, it was not to be expected that she would hold together long.
The mortar was loaded with a shot, to which a thin cord was attached. It was hoped that the shot would pass over the vessel, so that the crew could get hold of the cord, and that communication between the wreck and the shore could thus be established. The shot, however, fell short, and a second trial only made it more certain that the mortar would not throw a shot the required distance, against the wind.
"It's no good," said the patrolman. "If the government won't give us a mortar big enough to carry five rods, we can't be expected to work miracles. Come on, men, and get out the boat. We'll have her on the beach, though I don't believe we can do much with her."
Everybody went back to the house.
"We'll want all you boys to help this time," said the Captain of the coast-guard, for such he proved to be. "It's hard work dragging a boat through the sand."
Tom's fire was now blazing nicely, and he left it to lend a hand with the boat. It was hard work until the loose, deep sand at the foot of the sand-hills was passed, after which the boat was moved more easily, until she was finally brought opposite the wreck.
"Now, men," said the Captain, "what do you say? Can we do it?"
"We can try," answered one of the men; "but I say, wait till daylight. If that bark has held together so long as she has, she'll last an hour longer, and by that time the sea may go down a little. Anyway, we'll have light to work by."