point of letting him go. Another wave
breaking at the moment, and hissing as it rushed back in a sheet of foam
over the beach, would have swept away the almost rescued man, but
Edward, planting his oar deep in the sand, held on while the lieutenant
was engaged in hauling Tom out of danger, hastening, the moment he had
done so, to assist his nephew in landing the stranger. The latter still
breathed, and attempted to raise himself from the sand, though unable to
speak.

"You attend to him, Ned, while I look after Tom," said the lieutenant.

The black, however, required no assistance. He proposed, indeed, to
again swim off on the chance of finding some other human being
struggling for life; but this the lieutenant would not allow. Already
the breakers were covered with masses of wreck, amid which not a single
person could be seen, though they looked out eagerly, Tom pressing into
the seething foam as far as he dared venture, while the lieutenant held
up the lantern as a signal to any strong swimmer who might successfully
have buffeted with the waves; but he did so with little hope of success.
Every now and then he looked round, uttering an exclamation of regret
at the non-appearance of the coast-guard, though, had they arrived, it
was evident that they would be too late to be of use.

The sea continued to cast up fragments of wreck and cargo on the beach,
but the lieutenant and Tom searched in vain for any of their
fellow-creatures to whom they might render assistance.

"No use waiting longer, I fear," shouted the lieutenant. "I'll go and
look after the man we have saved; the sooner we get him under shelter
the better, or he'll be perishing of cold."

"Me stop just a little longer," answered the black.

"Take care though that the sea doesn't carry you off, Tom," cried the
lieutenant, even now trusting that someone else might be rescued.

On returning to the spot where Edward was tending the stranger, he bent
down by the side of the latter and felt his heart. "He is still
evidently in a very exhausted condition," he observed, holding up his
lantern so that the light fell on the man's countenance. "Poor fellow,
he does not look as if he were accustomed to a seaman's life."

"I have been rubbing his hands and chest, uncle, and trying what I could
do to revive him," said Edward. "We should get him home at once, I am
sure."

"Just what I was saying; we must not risk his life on the chance of
saving that of ot