ew
straight towards the ship, rising at a high angle so as to fall beyond
it. But the force of the wind took it up as it rose, and the gale
increased so that it rose nearly vertically; and in this position the
wind threw it south of its objective, and short of it. Another rocket
was got ready at once, and blue lights were burned so that the course of
the venturous swimmer might be noted. He swam strongly; but the great
weight of the rope behind kept pulling him back, and the southern trend
of the tide current and the force of the wind kept dragging him from the
pier. Within the bar the waves were much less than without; but they
were still so unruly that no boat in the harbour--which was not a
lifeboat station--could venture out. Indeed, in the teeth of the storm
it would have been a physical impossibility to have driven one seaward.

As the gathered crowd saw Stephen approach they made way for her. She
had left her horse with the groom, and despite the drenching spray fought
a way against the wind out on the pier. As in the glare of the blue
light, which brought many things into harsh unnatural perspective, she
caught sight of the set face of the swimmer rising and falling with the
waves, her heart leaped. This was indeed a man! a brave man; and all the
woman in her went out to him. For him, and to aid him and his work, she
would have given everything, done anything; and in her heart, which beat
in an ecstasy of anxiety, she prayed with that desperate conviction of
hope which comes in such moments of exaltation.

But it soon became apparent that no landing could be effected. The force
of the current and the wind were taking the man too far southward for him
ever to win a way back. Then one of coastguards took the lead-topped
cane which they use for throwing practice, and, after carefully coiling
the line attached it so that it would run free, managed with a desperate
effort to fling it far out. The swimmer, to whom it fell close, fought
towards it frantically; and as the cord began to run through the water,
managed to grasp it. A wild cheer rose from the shore and the ship. A
stout line was fastened to the shore end of the cord, and the swimmer
drew it out to him. He bent it on the rope which trailed behind him;
then, seeing that he was himself a drag on it, with the knife which he
drew from the sheath at the back of his waist, he cut himself free. One
of the coastguards on the pier, helped by a host of