s heart. He sprang forward
and seized him by the arm. One glance was sufficient.

"Bax!"

"Guy!"

There was no time for more. The astonishment of both was extreme, as
may well be supposed, and that of Guy was much increased when he heard
another familiar voice shout--

"All right, Bax?"

"All right, Tommy; let them look alive with the women and children; get
up a light if you can." There were others in the lifeboat who
recognised these voices, but life and death were trembling in the
balance at that moment; they dared not unbend their attention from the
one main object for an instant.

Some one in the "Trident" (for it was indeed that ill-fated ship) seemed
to have anticipated Bax's wish. Just as he spoke, a torch made of tar
and oakum was lighted, and revealed the crowded decks, the raging sea
that sought to swallow them up, and the lifeboat surging violently
alongside. It was an appalling scene: the shrieks of the women and
children, mingled with the howling wind, the rush of the waves on the
ship's side, and the shouting of men, created a din so horrible that
many a stout heart quailed. Fortunately the men who were the most
active in the work of saving others were so taken up with what they were
about, that there was no room for thought of personal danger.

The first human being placed in the boat was a little child. Its
mother, despairing of being saved herself, pressed through the crowd,
held her little one over the side, and cried out "Save my child!" Bax
leaped on the air-chamber at the bow of the boat, and grasping the
shoulder of a boatman with one hand, stretched out the other towards the
child; but the boat swooped forward and brought him close under the
chains, where a sailor held a woman suspended in his arm, ready to drop
her into the boat when it should come close alongside. It did not,
however, approach sufficiently near. The next wave carried them back,
and enabled Bax to seize the child and lay it in a place of safety. The
mother was soon beside it, and in a short time the boat was quite
filled.

Bax then leaped into the mizzen-chains, the lifeboat pushed off, and
conveyed her cargo to the steam-tug. They took off 25 women and
children the first trip. The steamer then towed the boat into position,
to enable her again to make straight for the wreck. By this means much
valuable time was saved, and more trips were made than could have been
accomplished in the time by any lifeboat