COALS OF FIRE.
The four boys stood in the waist of the boat straining their ears for
a repetition of the sound that had floated out over the black waters.
"There it is again," whispered Frank. "It seems to be dead ahead."
Again they held their breaths and listened.
"Help, help," came a faint voice. There was no mistaking it this time.
"Some one in trouble, and worse off than we are," said the Codfish.
"There it is, louder."
"Hello! Hello! Help! Help!" came floating to their ears.
"Some one drowning out there," said Lewis, shivering.
Again rose the cry, this time shriller and stronger.
"I believe it is some one on Flat Rock," said Frank. "I can't see,
but the rock ought to be just ahead of us. What can any one be doing
there? Flat Rock is all under water at high tide. That would be a bad
fix, for certain sure."
"Let's give a call," added Frank. The boys, uniting their voices,
shouted: "What's the matter? Who is it?"
Quite near now came the hail: "We are wrecked on a big rock here.
Come and help us. The tide's coming up and we'll be washed off.
Please hurry!" The voice dwindled off into nothing as if the speaker
was in deadly fear and had no breath to state his troubles further.
"Jiminy crickets!" said Jimmy. "We are not in much of a way to help
any one, but we've got to do something for that fellow. Give me the
painter. I can see the outline of the rock. Let me take the rope and
I'll jump overboard and tow her. You handle the rudder, Frank."
Frank was about to object to this arrangement, preferring to take
the cold bath himself, when Jimmy grabbed the rope's end and dived
overboard. He struck out for the rock, which was outlined by a line
of white where the running tide fringed its edge.
The boys on the boat watched anxiously as he ploughed along. It was a
small pull at best that he could give the _Black Duck_, but as both
were going with the current, the pull that he did give was sufficient
to guide the craft in the direction of the dark mass just ahead.
"Look out, Frank, I'm touching," shouted Jimmy over his shoulder.
"Pull your rudder sharp over to starboard."
Frank did as he was bid and the nose of the _Black Duck_ barely
grazed a big black boulder just awash.
"There, keep her steady," Jimmy commanded. "Let the tide carry her up
and I'll pull her around into this little cove."
"She'll bump, won't she?" queried Frank anxiously.
"No, it looks like deep water there just behind that rock you missed,
and the pull of the tide won't bother much. I'll hitch this painter
here."
Jimmy finished his work and straightened up, peering into the
darkness, from which came a plaintive voice:
"Please hurry up! The tide's coming in and we'll be washed off.
Please come quick."
"How many are there of you?" Frank sang out.
"Two of us. We were knocked up here by the thunder storm and the
boat is stove in. Hurry, hurry, won't you? The tide is rising."
"Why doesn't he come down to us, whoever he is?" said the Codfish.
"There's a channel of water between this rock we are on," said Jimmy,
who was in a little better position to see, "and the place where
those fellows are wrecked, and it's running like mad. Can't you hear
it boil?"
It was as he said. The rock seemed to be in two sections, separated
by a channel perhaps fifty feet wide, which looked black and
threatening in the half gloom. Jimmy began climbing over the slippery
footing in the direction of the channel.
"Hold on there," shouted Frank, "I'm going with you. You mustn't go
there alone."
"Oh, don't leave us here," wailed Lewis.
"What, with me to protect you?" cried the Codfish scornfully.
"Nothing will happen to you, you big baby," said Frank, as he began
to strip off his clothes. "I'm not going to let Jimmy tackle that
job alone. Wait for me, Jimmy; I'll be with you in a minute." He was
stripped in a minute and lowered himself carefully over the side.
With the water up to his waist, he found footing on the rock and
edged his way carefully out to where Jimmy stood.
Meantime the pleading voice on the other side of the channel kept
calling for the rescuers to make haste. It was filled with a deadly
anxiety, as well it might be, for the tide was pouring in from the
sea with full power, gushing and eddying among the nooks and crannies
of the big rock which obstructed its path. It sounded strangely like
a low hum of voices and had a sinister and threatening tone, like the
tone of a mob.
"I don't like the look of this channel a little bit," said Jimmy
as he and Frank worked their careful way across the slimy rock,
occasionally slipping and grabbing each other for support. Now they
reached the edge of the swiftly running channel.
"Nothing to do but try it," said Frank. "If these shipwrecked people
can't swim, we will be as badly off as ever. Come on, here goes."
Frank waded out to his waist in the swift current. The water tugged
and pulled at him as if bent on destroying him. Suddenly he found
himself beyond his depth and began to swim. Jimmy was at his elbow.
The water caught them with its full force and whirled them along.
But in spite of the current they made progress across it, and puffing
and panting they pulled up on a shelving part of the main body of the
rock, and staggered to their feet.
The shipwrecked boys, seeing their rescuers at hand, rushed down to
them shouting for joy, but the leader of the two staggered back as he
came face to face with Frank.
"Frank Armstrong!" he gasped.
"Peters!" cried Frank and Jimmy in a breath. "Great Scott!" said the
former, "we didn't know it was you."
"Please don't go away and leave me," whined Peters. "We're in an
awful fix."
"We don't intend to go and leave you, but we are in a bad fix
ourselves."
"Please take us off here," continued Peters. There were tears in his
voice.
"We have a boat," said Jimmy, "on the other side of that channel, but
our motor is dead. The only thing we can do is to take you aboard her
and wait till morning, or till some search party comes out for us."
At this Peters sank down on the rock and covered his face with his
hand. "I can't swim that channel," he cried. "I don't dare try it.
It serves me right. I put up a game to beat you this afternoon and
was so ashamed of it afterward that I didn't stay a minute, but
jumped into my boat and put out for home----"
"And were caught in the storm?" interrupted Frank.
"Yes. The wind kicked up such a sea that I couldn't cross it and had
to run ahead of it. I tried to get around in the lee of this rock,
but the wind drove me onto a ledge out there and knocked a hole in
the bottom of the boat, and she sank."
"And you swam here?"
"Yes, we were barely able to make it. We crawled up here and laid
down till the storm went over. We've been here yelling ever since."
"The storm drove every one in, so there wasn't much chance of your
being heard. The wind, blowing in the direction it did, carried your
voices out to sea. We barely heard you, although we were quite near,"
said Frank.
"You were awfully good to come to us. I'm sorry I played such a dirty
trick on you. Will you forgive me?" and Peters held out his hand.
"That's all right, Peters," said Frank, grasping the outstretched
hand. "Forget about it. You could probably have beaten me, anyway."
"No, I couldn't," said the repentant Peters. "I hated you for winning
last year and I wanted to make sure you wouldn't this year. Oh, I'm
ashamed of myself," and Peters hung his head. "I don't want the prize
for that race, and I won't take it."
"Come, never mind, we'll race again some day on even terms," said
Frank, "but the main business now is to get over to the other side
of this channel and get into the boat. We have no power, but we have
a bottom under us, and it won't do us any harm to sleep out for one
night, I guess."
"It will be a kind of a lark," said Jimmy, but his voice didn't have
much enthusiasm in it.
"The only thing that is bothering me," said Frank, "is what mother
and father will think, and your mother and father, and Lewis's. They
will be crazy thinking that some trouble has come to us."
"Say," said Peters, who, now that he had confessed his sins, took on
a brighter mind, "isn't there something in your boat we might pull
out and set afire as a kind of a signal? I've no doubt that there
are people watching over there on the shore. Couldn't we try it?"
"That's a good idea, Peters," exclaimed Jimmy. "We could yank out
some of the boards from the cabin, put a little gasoline on them and
have a bonfire here. That would show them on shore where we are and
some one could pick us up in a jiffy."
"Good!" said Frank. "We'll do it. It will save a lot of worry for our
people if they know we are not drowned. Let's get back and try it."
So saying, he turned and made his way down to the edge of the channel
which separated them from the boat. The three boys followed him
cautiously. It was almost pitch dark now, and the water looked more
forbidding than ever.
"I'll lead off," said Frank, "and you fellows follow me. Keep as
close in line as you can and look out for the sunken rocks."
Peters was shivering, partly with the cold and partly with terror.
It had been a night of peril for him, and he did not have the animal
courage of either Frank or Jimmy, or even of Bates, who had scarcely
said a word, but followed sullenly behind.
Frank was in the water to his waist now, but suddenly hailed the
boat: "Hey, Codfish!"
"Hello," sang out the Codfish.
"We've found them and we're coming back," yelled Frank at the top of
his voice, for the wind was beginning to breeze up with the incoming
tide. "Have an eye out for us; we'll be with you in five minutes.
Come on," he said, turning to the boys behind him, "it's now or
never! This channel is getting wider and there's nothing to be gained
by waiting." He took another step and began to swim.
The others followed silently. Soon they were gripped by the current
and began their fight to the other side. The current was more savage,
if anything, than when Jimmy and Frank had crossed it a few minutes
before. Desperately they battled with it for their lives.
"I can't make it," groaned Peters from behind. "I can't make it. Help
me!"
"Don't give up," shouted Frank encouragingly. "Keep at it, old
fellow," and Frank stopped swimming for a moment till Peters drew
alongside him. Elbow to elbow the two boys swam, as they had swum
but a few hours before in the race, but now it was a battle for
life. Frank's encouraging words buoyed up the New Yorker's drooping
spirits.
"Only a few strokes more," he kept repeating. "Stick it out."
Bates swam doggedly behind without a word.
"I'm touching," yelled Jimmy. "I'm touching. We're safe, we're safe!"
The shout put heart into Peters, who drove ahead with all his
remaining strength, and soon the four lay panting on a little shelf
of rock with more bare rock just in front of them. They were indeed
over the worst part of it.
But just as they struggled to safety, there came a tremendous yelling
from the direction of the boat.
"Come quick, come quick, we're adrift!" It was the voice of the
Codfish. Now Lewis joined in: "Quick, quick, we are adrift!"
Frank and Jimmy sprang to the higher rocks and made for the boat,
slipping, stumbling and rolling. They could not in the darkness see
where they were going, and in the scramble they bruised their knees
and tore their hands. The barnacles cut Frank's bare feet, but he
dashed on in the direction of the cries. Jimmy was close on his heels
and the others straggled behind, vaguely aware that some new trouble
had come to crown their misfortunes of the night.
What they worst feared from the shouts of the boys on the boat was
only too true. In some manner the tugging at the boat of wind and
tide had loosened the knot Jimmy had put in the painter, and the
_Black Duck_ was moving swiftly away from the rock with the two boys
aboard, borne on the bosom of the tide. When Frank reached the place
where they had left the boat moored, only the dim outline of the
_Black Duck_ was visible, and in a moment even that was lost to view.
For a few minutes the shouts of the Codfish and Lewis could be heard,
but soon those, too, died out, except when brought faintly in the
lulls of the rising wind.
"There goes our hope of safety," said Frank. "Now we _are_ in a
pretty fix, and no mistake."