from the wide Atlantic. She lay broadside to the surges, harpooned and held by the deadly pinnacled reef of Graveyard Point. 

 

CHAPTER THREE THE SEA-WAIF

OF the scores of little capes that jut out from Montauk, there is none but is ghostly with the skeleton of some brave ship. Three such relics were bleaching their still vertebrate bones on the rocks where the schooner lay trapped. It was only too evident that a like fate was ordained to her, and that the promptest action of the life-savers alone could avail the ten huddled wretches in her rigging. 

O

 What man could do, the crews of the two stations were doing; and now, in a sudden lull of wind, they sent a life-line over her. One of the men came over to the Third House group, and spoke to Helga Johnston, bending so close that she shrank back a little. 

 “Can’t last—hour,” came to Colton’s ears in sentences disjointed by the wind. “Old wooden—pound pieces. Get most of ’em—life-buoy—all right.” 

 At a word from Miss Johnston, Haynes shouted in Colton’s ear: “Come down to the beach. When she smashes, some of ’em may come in there.” 

 “Not alive surely?” cried Colton, glancing at the surf. 

 “Yes,” the girl’s clear voice answered, with an accent of absolute certainty. “We must watch.” Down a sharp declivity they made their way to the gully, which debouched upon a sand beach. Johnston, the veteran, who had preceded them, was gathering driftwood for a fire, with a practical appreciation of the possibilities. 

 “Bear a hand, Helga!” he shouted. “And you, Mr. Haynes!” 

 Almost before he knew it, Colton too was hard at work dragging timber to the centre marked by the lanterns. A clutch on his arm called his attention to what was going on above him, as Johnston pointed seaward. In the glint of the lightning, he saw clear against the windy void a huddled mass, at which the waves leaped and clutched, as it moved steadily shoreward. Another glimpse showed it risen above the reach of the breakers. It was a breeches-buoy, bearing its first burden. 

 “Line’s working all right!” yelled the old coastguard. “They ought to get ’em all in.” 

 Presently another traveller came in foot by foot over that slender and hopeful thread, then a third and a fourth, until seven of the crew were 

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