THE LIFEBOAT IS LAUNCHED
The announcement quelled all the jollity of the party on the instant.
Heavy even lost interest in the sweetmeats before her.
"Goodness me! what a terrible thing," cried Helen Cameron. "A ship
on the rocks!"
"Let's go see it!" Busy Izzy cried.
"If we can," said Tom. "Is it possible, Miss Kate?"
Heavy's aunt looked at the butler for information. He was one of those
well-trained servants who make it their business to know everything.
"I can have the ponies put into the long buckboard. The young ladies
can drive to the station; the young gentlemen can walk. It is not raining
very hard at present."
Mercy elected to remain in the house with Miss Kate. The other girls were
just as anxious to go to the beach as the boys. There were no timid ones
in the party.
But when they came down, dressed in rainy-weather garments, and saw the
man standing at the ponies' heads, glistening in wet rubber, if one had
withdrawn probably all would have given up the venture. The boys had
already gone on ahead, and the ship's gun sounded mournfully through
the wild night, at short intervals.
They piled into the three seats of the buckboard, Ruth sitting beside the
driver. The ponies dashed away along the sandy road. It was two miles
to the life saving station. They passed the three boys when they were
only half way to their destination.
"Tell 'em not to save all the people from the wreck till we get
there!" shouted Tom Cameron.
None of the visitors to Lighthouse Point realized the seriousness of the
happening as yet. They were yet to see for the first time a good ship
battering her life out against the cruel rocks.
Nor did the girls see the wreck at first, for a pall of darkness lay upon
the sea. There were lights in the station and a huge fire of driftwood
burned on the beach. Around this they saw figures moving, and Heavy
said, as she alighted:
"We'll go right down there. There are some women and children
already--see? Sam will put the horses under the shed here."
The five girls locked arms and ran around the station. When they came to
the front of the building, a great door was wheeled back at one side and
men in oilskins were seen moving about a boat in the shed. The lifeboat
was on a truck and they were just getting ready to haul her down to the
beach.
"And the wreck must have struck nearly an hour ago!" cried Madge. "How
slow they are."
"No," said Heavy thoughtfully. "It is July now, and Uncle Sam doesn't
believe there will be any wrecks along this coast until September. In
the summer Cap'n Abinadab keeps the station alone. It took some time
to-night to find a crew--and possibly some of these men are volunteers."
But now that the life-savers had got on the ground, they went to work
with a briskness and skill that impressed the onlookers. They tailed
onto the drag rope and hauled the long, glistening white boat down to
the very edge of the sea. The wind was directly onshore, and it was a
fight to stand against it, let alone to haul such a heavy truck through
the wet sand.
Suddenly there was a glow at sea and the gun boomed out again. Then a
pale signal light burned on the deck of the foundered vessel. As the
light grew those ashore could see her lower rigging and the broken masts
and spars. She lay over toward the shore and her deck seemed a snarl of
lumber. Between the reef and the beach, too, the water was a-foul with
wreckage and planks of all sizes.
"Lumber-laden, boys--and her deck load's broke loose!" shouted one man.
The surf roared in upon the sands, and then sucked out again with a whine
which made Ruth shudder. The sea seemed like some huge, ravening beast
eager for its prey.
"How can they ever launch the boat into those waves?" Ruth asked of
Heavy.
"Oh, they know how," returned the stout girl.
But the life-savers were in conference about their captain. He was a
short, sturdy old man with a squarely trimmed "paint-brush" beard.
The girls drew nearer to the group and heard one of the surfmen say:
"We'll smash her, Cap, sure as you're born! Those planks are charging
in like battering-rams."
"We'll try it, Mason," returned Cap'n Abinadab. "I don't believe
we can shoot a line to her against this gale. Ready!"
The captain got in at the stern and the others took their places in the
boat. Each man had a cork belt strapped around his body under his arms.
There were a dozen other men to launch the lifeboat into the surf when
the captain gave the word.
He stood up and watched the breakers rolling in. As a huge one curved
over and broke in a smother of foam and spray he shouted some command
which the helpers understood. The boat started, truck and all, and
immediately the men launching her were waist deep in the surging, hissing
sea.
The returning billow carried the boat off the truck, and the lifeboatmen
plunged in their oars and pulled. Their short sharp strokes were in such
unison that the men seemed moved by the same mind. The long boat shot
away from the beach and mounted the incoming wave like a cork.
The men ashore drew back the boat-truck out of the way. The lifeboat
seemed to hang on that wave as though hesitating to take the plunge.
Ruth thought that it would be cast back--a wreck itself--upon the beach.
But suddenly it again sprang forward, and the curling surf hid boat and
men for a full minute from the gaze of those on shore. The girls clung
together and gazed eagerly out into the shifting shadows that overspread
the riotous sea.
"They've sunk!" gasped Helen.
"No, no!" cried Heavy. "There! see them?"
The boat's bow rose to meet the next wave. They saw the men pulling as
steadily as though the sea were smooth. Old Cap'n Abinadab still stood
upright in the stern, grasping the heavy steering oar.
"I've read," said Ruth, more quietly, "that these lifeboats are
unsinkable--unless they are completely wrecked. Water-tight compartments,
you know."
"That's right, Miss," said one of the men nearby. "She can't sink.
But she can be smashed--Ah!"
A shout came back to them from the sea. The wind whipped the cry past
them in a most eerie fashion.
"Cap'n Abinadab shouting to the men," explained Heavy, breathlessly.
Suddenly another signal light was touched off upon the wreck. The growing
light flickered over the entire expanse of lumber-littered sea between
the reef and the beach. They could see the lifeboat more clearly.
She rose and sank, rose and sank, upon wave after wave, all the time
fighting her way out from the shore. Again and again they heard the
awesome cry. The captain was warning his men how to pull to escape the
charging timbers.
The next breaker that rolled in brought with it several great planks that
were dashed upon the beach with fearful force. The splinters flew into
the air, the wind whipping them across the sands. The anxious spectators
had to dodge.
The timbers ground together as the sea sucked them back. Again and again
they were rolled in the surf, splintering against each other savagely.
"One of those would go through that boat like she was made of paper!"
bawled one of the fishermen.
At that moment they saw the lifeboat lifted upon another huge wave. She
was a full cable's length from the shore, advancing very slowly. In the
glare of the Coston light the anxious spectators saw her swerve to port
to escape a huge timber which charged upon her.
The girls screamed. The great stick struck the lifeboat a glancing blow.
In an instant she swung broadside to the waves, and then rolled over and
over in the trough of the sea.
A chorus of shouts and groans went up from the crowd on shore. The
lifeboat and her courageous crew had disappeared.