g thick oars and pulled out against the wind. By this time the hail
was comin' down in chunks that would cut the face off you. Sometimes
there are a lot of stragglers around here, but when we need a man, of
course, there is not one in sight. But we rowed away and somehow
managed to get close to the wreck. It was a little steamer, not much
bigger than a tug, and it was burning faster than the smoke told us.

"'You throw the rope and I'll stick to the oars!' shouted Len, his
voice sounding like a wheeze in the wind. There were three men on the
steamer and they were just about tuckered out. They were clingin' to
the rail, their hands blisterin' from the flames that were sweepin' up
close to them even as they touched the water's edge.

"It's an awful thing to see sufferin' like that," he put in. "I won't
ever forget how those fellows tumbled into our boat. They just rolled
in like dead men. But my rope got caught in the rudder of the steamer,
and I tugged and tugged, but it looked as if we would have to let her
burn off before we could free ourselves. Just when I decided to make a
big haul at it I came near my end. I stood up, gave the rope a yank,
and with that--rip! She let go! And I went with it over into the
water!"

"Goodness!" Cora exclaimed. "It was bad enough to have to rescue the
other men, but for you to go into that roaring ocean!"

"It was bad, Miss," agreed the narrator. "And the feel of that water
as I struck it! It was like a bath of sword-points. Well, that's where
the oar comes in! Bless the bit of wood it was cut from, it sure was a
good, strong stick.

"When I flopped into the water, like a fish dumped out of a net, your
grandpop, Freddie, took nary a chance at reachin' me with the rope. He
dropped the regular oars and took one of the pair he called lucky.

"'Here,' he yelled, 'grab to that!'

"I can see the red flash now as it nearly hit me on the head, but
though I did make a stab at it the water was that cold and the ice so
thick on me hands that I couldn't hold on.

"It's pretty bad to be floppin' around like that, I can tell you. But
Len kept shoutin' and when one of the other fellows got enough breath
to stand up with, he took a hand at the rescuin'.

"It was him who dropped the mate to that oar overboard. Mad! I could
hear Len yell through the thick of it all. But he held the last red
oar.

"With the effort to keep up me blood heated some, and the next time I
saw the flash of red I grab