n the shot goes out it will fall over the vessel, and
carry the line with it. Now watch him."

Charlie watched. "Bang!" went the gun. Away went the shot, the long rope
wriggling after it.

"Good!" cried John.

"What is good?" bawled Charlie.

"A good shot! The man sent the shot so that the rope has fallen across the
vessel, I think."

Others thought so, too, and a man quickly shouted, "They're pulling on it!
Hurrah!"

Then they all cheered. The crew on board the wreck were steadily drawing
the rope through the water. Charlie looked intently with both eyes, and he
wished that his ears also could be eyes for a little while.

"Come here!" shouted John to Charlie, and he led the boy around to a coil
of rope, one end of which was attached to the line going through the
water.

"See there, Bub! There is a block, what they call a single pulley-block,
and this stouter rope is doubled through it. It will soon go to the
wreck."

Another explanation was then bawled at Charlie, who now wished his eyes
were ears, so anxious was he to hear.

"Look at that block, and then there is what they call a tally-board, and
it has some printed directions on it, telling the men on the wreck just
what to do. Only _watch_!" he shouted.

The stouter rope had now started on its journey through the waters, and
was taken on board the wreck.

"There," said John, "you noticed the rope was doubled through that block?"

Charlie nodded assent.

"That gives us what we call an endless line--_line_. O, those noisy waves!
The line runs through the block, I told you, which must have got to the
wreck by this time. Here, you see, one end is made fast. At the wreck the
tally-board told them just where to hitch it. Now watch! They are hitching
on to the line a bigger one yet, and that will be hauled out to the
schooner, and fastened _above_ the other line. A second tally-board tells
them what to do."

Here John stopped to lay in a fresh stock of breath. Charlie saw that two
of the men on shore had been rigging tackles to long supports planted
firmly in the sand.

"Those tackles," resumed John, "help us straighten that second line till
it is above the breakers, and--now watch 'em--here comes the life-car, a
sort of box, you see, that we suspend from the upper rope, and at the same
time it is hitched to the lower or endless line. Now all we have got to do
is to pull on that endless line, and the life-car, sliding along the upper
rope, will spin r