in the direction to which the beam with the stone was
pointed, and thereby enabled the men more easily to brace them one after
another.

While the beam was thus loaded, and in the act of swinging round from
one guy to another, a great strain was suddenly brought upon the
opposite tackle, with the end of which the men had very improperly
neglected to take a turn round some stationary object, which would have
given them the complete command of the tackle.

Owing to this simple omission, the crane, with the large stone at the
end of the beam, got a preponderancy to one side, and, the tackle
alluded to having rent, it fell upon the building with a terrible crash.

The men fled right and left to get out of its way; but one of them,
Michael Wishart, a mason, stumbled over an uncut trenail and rolled on
his back, and the ponderous crane fell upon him. Fortunately it fell so
that his body lay between the great shaft and the movable beam, and thus
he escaped with his life, but his feet were entangled with the
wheel-work, and severely injured.

Wishart was a robust and spirited young fellow, and bore his sufferings
with wonderful firmness while he was being removed. He was laid upon
one of the narrow frame-beds of the beacon, and despatched in a boat to
the tender. On seeing the boat approach with the poor man stretched on
a bed covered with blankets, and his face overspread with that deadly
pallor which is the usual consequence of excessive bleeding, the
seamen's looks betrayed the presence of those well-known but
indescribable sensations which one experiences when brought suddenly
into contact with something horrible. Relief was at once experienced,
however, when Wishart's voice was heard feebly accosting those who first
stepped into the boat.

He was immediately sent on shore, where the best surgical advice was
obtained, and he began to recover steadily, though slowly. Meanwhile,
having been one of the principal masons, Robert Selkirk was appointed to
his vacant post.

And now let us wind up this chapter of accidents with an account of the
manner in which a party of strangers, to use a slang but expressive
phrase, came to grief during a visit to the Bell Rock.

One morning, a trim little vessel was seen by the workmen making for the
rock at low tide. From its build and size, Ruby at once judged it to be
a pleasure yacht. Perchance some delicate shades in the seamanship,
displayed in managing the little vessel,