hers," replied the lieutenant. "Come, Tom," he
shouted, "it is of no use, we must carry home this poor fellow; and may
be before we get far the coast-guard will be down here and take our
places."

At that instant a hail was heard. The lieutenant shouted in return. In
a few minutes a party of coast-guard men appeared, headed by their
lieutenant, who had heard the guns, and had been searching for the spot
where the vessel had struck. The man to whom Edward had given the
message had, however, not appeared, having, as was afterwards
discovered, fallen over the cliff and nearly lost his life. Lieutenant
Hanson said that he would remain on the spot, though his rockets would
be useless, as not a man could be clinging to the wreck.

"Let me have one of your people to assist in carrying this poor fellow
to my cottage then," said Lieutenant Pack; "it is more than Tom and I
can accomplish, seeing that my timber toe is apt to stick in the soft
sand as I trudge along."

"With all my heart," was the answer. "You shall have two, only send
them back without delay."

No further time was lost. The coast-guard men, wrapping the stranger in
their dry coats, lifted him on their shoulders, Ned and Tom taking his
feet, while the lieutenant led the way, lantern in hand, towards his
home.

Although a bright light beaming forth from the sitting-room of the
lieutenant's abode could alone be distinguished as the party approached,
it may be as well to describe it at once. Triton Cottage, as he called
it, from the name of the ship on board which he first went to sea, stood
on the side of a broad gap or opening in the cliff, some little distance
up from the beach, the ground around it being sufficiently level to
allow of a fair-sized garden and shrubbery. It was a building of
somewhat curious appearance, having no pretentions to what is considered
architectural beauty. The lieutenant, notwithstanding, was proud of it,
as the larger portion had been erected by his own hands from time to
time as he considered it necessary to increase its size, in order to
afford sufficient accommodation to its inmates, and to obtain a spare
room in which he could put up an old shipmate, or any other visitor to
whom his hospitable feelings might prompt him to give an invitation.
The original building had been a fisherman's cottage, to which he had
added another story, with a broad verandah in front, while on either
side wings had been attached, the upper