nd."

The second lieutenant was directed to take charge of the first cutter;
Peaks, the adult boatswain, and Bitts, the carpenter, were ordered to
go also, to render any assistance which might be required in succoring
the stove boat. The cutter shoved off, her twelve oars struck the
water together, and the crew gave way with an energy which caused
their oars to bend like twigs, while the barge leaped through the
water as though it was some monster of the deep goaded to his utmost
to escape the wrath of a more potent pursuer.

"With a will, my lads!" shouted the coxswain. "Steady! Keep the
stroke, but use your muscle!"

"There's a job for you, Bitts," said the boatswain, as the Norwegian
took the second cutter in tow.

"And a heavy job it will be, too," replied Bitts. "I wonder there is
anything left of the boat."

"The steamer stopped her wheels, and backed some time before she
struck, or there would not have been much left of the boat, or her
crew," added Peaks. "Thank God, the boys are all safe."

"It's a lucky escape for them."

"So it was; and we needn't say anything about the boat."

"The steamer is going ahead," said the carpenter.

"No matter for that, so long as the boys are all safe," replied Peaks.

The people in the steamer seemed to take no notice of the first
cutter, appearing not to understand that it had come out for the
wrecked crew. But as the boat pulled towards her, she cast off the
cutter in tow.

"Steamer, ahoy!" shouted Norwood, the second lieutenant, as he saw the
cutter cast adrift.

She made no reply, but hoisted a flag, on which appeared the word
"Post," with something else which none in the first cutter could
understand.

"She's a mail boat," said the boatswain; "and I suppose she intends to
say she is in a hurry."

"Does she mean to carry off the crew of that boat?" demanded the
second lieutenant, not a little vexed at the conduct of the
Norwegians.

"She will not carry them far," suggested Dunlap, the coxswain.

"She may take them to Bergen."

"I think not, sir. If she is a mail steamer, she stops at all the
ports on the coast. I don't think she will carry them far. Very likely
they will be sent back, on some other steamer, before night," added
Dunlap, who had studied the coast of Norway more carefully than the
lieutenant in command.

"First cutter, ahoy!" shouted De Forrest, on the island.

"On shore!" replied Norwood. "We can't catch the steamer--that is
certain;