The screams of
those on board were faintly borne on the tempest as they flung
themselves into the sea in a last chance for life. The blue lights
were kept burning, and eager eyes peered into the depths of the waters
in case any face could be seen; and ropes were held ready to fling out
in aid. But never a face was seen, and the willing arms rested idle.
Eric was there amongst his fellows. His old Icelandic origin was
never more apparent than in that wild hour. He took a rope, and
shouted in the ear of the harbour-master:

'I shall go down on the rock over the seal cave. The tide is running
up, and someone may drift in there!'

'Keep back, man!' came the answer. 'Are you mad? One slip on that rock
and you are lost: and no man could keep his feet in the dark on such a
place in such a tempest!'

'Not a bit,' came the reply. 'You remember how Abel Behenna saved me
there on a night like this when my boat went on the Gull Rock. He
dragged me up from the deep water in the seal cave, and now someone
may drift in there again as I did,' and he was gone into the darkness.
The projecting rock hid the light on the Flagstaff Rock, but he knew
his way too well to miss it. His boldness and sureness of foot
standing to him, he shortly stood on the great round-topped rock cut
away beneath by the action of the waves over the entrance of the seal
cave, where the water was fathomless. There he stood in comparative
safety, for the concave shape of the rock beat back the waves with
their own force, and though the water below him seemed to boil like a
seething cauldron, just beyond the spot there was a space of almost
calm. The rock, too, seemed here to shut off the sound of the gale,
and he listened as well as watched. As he stood there ready, with his
coil of rope poised to throw, he thought he heard below him, just
beyond the whirl of the water, a faint, despairing cry. He echoed it
with a shout that rang into the night Then he waited for the flash of
lightning, and as it passed flung his rope out into the darkness where
he had seen a face rising through the swirl of the foam. The rope was
caught, for he felt a pull on it, and he shouted again in his mighty
voice:

'Tie it round your waist, and I shall pull you up.' Then when he felt
that it was fast he moved along the rock to the far side of the sea
cave, where the deep water was something stiller, and where he could
get foothold secure enough to drag the rescued man on the overhangin