of her still
holds together; slowly!" he shouted up, in one of the pauses of the
gale, and Hardy's response of "Aye, aye, sir," came down to them.

It was a desperate three minutes; but at the end of that time,
bruised, bleeding, half-stunned by the blows, half-drowned by the
sheets of water which flew over them, the lads' feet touched the
rocks. These formed a sloping shelf of some thirty feet wide at the
foot of the cliff.

The wreck which had appeared immediately under them was forty feet
away, and appeared a vague, misshapen black mass. They had been seen,
for they had waved the lantern from the edge of the cliff before
starting, and they had several times shouted as they descended, and as
they neared the ground, they were delighted at hearing by an answering
shout that their labors had not been in vain, and that some one still
survived.

"Throw us a rope," Dick shouted at the top of his voice; and in a
moment they heard a rope fall close to them. Groping about in the
darkness, they found it, just as a wave burst below them, and, dashing
high over their heads, drove them against the rock, and then floated
them off their feet. The rope from above held them, however. "Lower
away!" Dick yelled, as he regained his feet, and then, aided by the
rope from the ship, they scrambled along, and were hauled on to the
wreck before the next great sea came.

"I've broken my arm, Dick," Jack said; "but never mind me now. How
many are there alive?"

There were sixteen men huddled together under the remains of the
bulwark. The greater portion of the ship was gone altogether, and only
some forty feet of her stern remained high on the rocky ledge on which
she had been cast. The survivors were for the most part too exhausted
to move, but those who still retained some strength and vigor at once
set to work. In pairs they were fastened in the slings, and hauled up
direct from the deck of the vessel, another rope being fastened to
them and held by those on the wreck, by which means they were guided
and saved somewhat from being dashed against the cliff in the ascent.

When those below felt, by the rope no longer passing between their
hands, that the slings had reached the top, they waited for a minute
to allow those in them to be taken out, and then hauling upon the
rope, pulled the slings down again for a fresh party. So, slowly and
painfully, the whole party were, two by two, taken up from the wreck.

Several times while the op