e men, headed by a couple of
coastguard, drew a truck along the sands and through the pools of water
towards a spot to the left of where they stood, and just beyond the
place where the seine was drawn in and the shark captured. To Dick it
seemed as if the men were going away, from the place where they were
likely to be of any help to the crew of the ship; but the fishermen knew
what they were about, and old Mr Marion, who was as excited as any one
present, came up to shout out his opinions.

"She'll come ashore on the Black Fin," he said. "The other side of the
buoy. You watch her, and you'll see."

In spite of the driving foam and the salt rain formed by the spray cut
from the tops of the waves, the vessel could now be plainly seen
labouring and tossing among the great billows which grew heavier and
grander the nearer the unfortunate vessel came to the shore, and Dick
began to realise now how a ship could be safer a thousand miles from
land in the heaviest hurricane than among the breakers upon our rocky
coast.

The beating rain and wind then were forgotten as the rocket-cart came
up, and Mr Temple and his sons staggered after it, Josh laying hold of
one of Dick's arms, Will of the other, while old Marion and Mr Temple
were on either side of Arthur, who wondered how the wind could thunder
so heavily in his ears.

Dick had a misty sort of idea that a rope would be shot out to the
wreck, and that the men would come along it ashore, but how it was to be
done he could not tell. Had the storm been twice as heavy, though, he
would have gone to see, and he pressed eagerly forward till, with his
companions, he was close up to the cart, waiting for the ship to strike.

On she came through the foam, closer and closer, every mast standing,
but the sails that had been set torn to rags, that streamed out like
tattered pennons, and whipped and beat about the yards. Men on the
shore ran here and there and shouted to each other to do
impossibilities. Some got under the lee of rocks to use their glasses,
but only to close them again and hurry to gain their excited companions,
who were standing with coils of rope over their shoulders, and one arm
through the ring, shouting again with their hands to their mouths, and
one who had a speaking-trumpet roared some unintelligible order through
it to the wind that cast it back into his face.

"Will the life-boat come in time?" said Mr Temple to Josh; but the
fisherman did not speak