om the ship.

"The cable has parted!" cried Hollis. "No hope for them now!"

We hurried along to where we saw the ship must strike. A huge roller
seemed to lift her, and with a terrific crash down she came on the sand,
the foaming sea instantly dashing over her, making every timber in her
tremble, and tearing off large fragments of her upper works.

"The stoutest ship ever built couldn't stand those shocks many minutes,"
observed one of the coastguard men.

Hollis had planted his apparatus. A shot was fired, and the line fell
over the wreck as the sea took one poor fellow who had let go his hold
to clutch it. In vain he lifted up his hands to grasp some part of the
wreck. He was borne helplessly into the seething caldron below. Now he
was carried towards us. We could see his straining eyeballs, and his
arms stretched out. In vain, in vain. The hissing roller, as it
receded, swept him far away; a shriek reached our ears, and we saw him
no more. Such has been many a brave seaman's lot. Another seaman was
more successful, the line was secured, and now we signalled to those on
board to secure a stouter line that we might haul it on shore. One was
found, and we began hauling away, but our united strength could only
just do it. How should we ever get a cable taut enough to allow of the
people passing safely along it? Happily at that moment several
fishermen arrived with stout poles, boats' masts, and oars, and began
planting them in the sand.

Then taking the rope in hand, they hauled it in with ease. A hawser had
been made fast to the rope. That in the same way was got in, and the
end secured to the poles. A traveller had been wisely placed on the
hawser. The first man securing himself to it worked his way along,
carrying a line with him. He was one of the mates. There were six more
people on board alive, including the captain, he told us. The rest had
been lowered into the boat, with the women and children. "Children out
in such weather as this!" more than one of us exclaimed. But the boat;
where was that? Now, for the first time, while the line which the brave
mate had brought on shore was being hauled back, we had time to look out
for her. I ran up the sand-hill. In vain I turned my eyes over the
angry, foaming sea. Not a glimpse of the boat could I obtain. Down
came the snow again. My heart sank within me. "Haul away!" I heard
shouted. I ran to take my part. The big tears sprang to my