without delay so that the
building of the church should be commenced when he returned to Chance
Along in June. He even drew up specifications of the lumber that would
be required and the stone for the foundation. Then, leaving in the
skipper's care all the gold which he had collected for the sacred
edifice, he marched sturdily away toward the north. The skipper
accompanied him and carried his knapsack, for ten miles of the way.

Two days after the missionary's departure a gale blew in from the
southeast; and at the first gray of a roaring dawn the look-out from
Squid Beach came hammering at the skipper's door with news of a ship on
the rocks under the cliffs a few miles along the coast. Every man and
boy who could swing a leg turned out. The gear was shouldered and the
skipper led the way northward at a run, lantern in hand. They found the
wreck about a mile north of Squid Beach, close against the face of the
cliff. She had struck with her port-bow and was listed sharply landward.
The seas beat so furiously upon her that every seventh comer washed her
clean and sent the spray smoking over her splintered spars. She showed
no sign of life. She lay in so desperate a place that even Black Dennis
Nolan, with all his gear and wits, could do nothing but wait until the
full fury of the gale should diminish.

It was close upon noon when the first line was made fast between the
cliff and the broken foremast of the wreck. The wind had slackened and
the seas fallen in a marked degree by this time. Looking down from the
cliff the men of Chance Along could see the slanted deck, cleared of all
superstructures and bulwarks, the stumps of spars with only the
foremast intact to the cross-trees and a tangle of rigging, yards,
canvas and tackle awash against the face of the cliff. Something--a
swathed human figure, perhaps--was lashed in the fore-top.

The skipper was the first to venture a passage from the edge of the
cliff to the foremast. He made it with several life-lines around his
waist. He reached the bundle lashed to the cross-trees and, clinging
with hands and feet, looked into the face of an unconscious but living
woman. So he hung for a long half-minute, staring. Then, hoisting
himself up to a more secure position, he pulled a flask of brandy from
his pocket.

So Black Dennis Nolan brought back to consciousness the person who was
to be the undoing of his great plans!

CHAPTER VI

THE GIRL FROM THE CROSS-TREES

C