hey couldn't; the breakers would sweep them away in a minute."

"Look!"

For man is brave and man does fight, even in the face of injustice, in
the face of odds. Thus did Martin Loughran, in the fore rigging of the
_Zeitgeist_, as with set jaws he struggled upward toward the stump of
the topmast. Between the trucks of the fore and maintopmasts ran a
horizontal line of wire. It is called the "triatic stay," and Loughran
was climbing to it. Dan--all the _Fledgling's_ crew and the crew of
the _Sovereign_--foresaw his intention, and stentorian shouts, "You
can't do it!" bounded over the water. But the sailor did not pause,
if, indeed, he heard their warnings.

Slowly, laboriously he climbed. He stretched up one hand and grasped
the stay. Up went the other hand. Then out against the glooming sky
was limned the swaying form, working its way along the triatic stay
hand over hand, in an effort to reach the mainmast. A faint cheer came
from the men in the main rigging, while two of the _Fledgling's_ crew
cheered, and two bowed their heads in agony, and Dan sobbed aloud.

"Look at him," cried Dan. "Oh, God!"

"A sandy man cashin' in," muttered Mulhatton solemnly.

Out, out worked the swaying form. But he had more than one hundred
feet to go. Twenty-five feet--progress ceased. It hung there silent,
that figure--it seemed almost an eternity. It hung as silent as a
piece of sail and as fitfully swaying. Suddenly one hand relaxed and
fell limp. It was as though something had sucked the breath from every
onlooker. The hand was feebly raised in a futile clutch to regain the
lost hold. It fell again. Still there was silence.

A dark form cleaved the gloom and lay in a black huddle upon the lumber
amidships, until a boarding wave kindly removed it and spurned it upon
the beach as it would a drowned dog. Ten minutes later the foremast
went and the life-savers, dashing into the surf, took out of the
rigging a dead sea-cook.

And still the tugs lay like vultures awaiting carrion. Both had come
down to the wreck in the hope of getting a line over her and pulling
her from the sands, for which there would have been ample reward. But
it was too rough to approach her and she was too far gone to warrant
salving, even were it possible. But there were men dying before their
eyes and no one was lifting a hand. Dan was in a red-headed glare of
emotion. He was too young to look upon such things calmly. He turned
his