ent,
maybe."

They hit the beach almost exactly at the right spot, a feat which the
passenger considered a miracle, but which the Captain seemed to take
as a matter of course. They beached and anchored the dory, and, bending
almost double as they faced the wind, plowed through the sand to the
back door of the station. There was comparatively little snow here on
the outer beach--the gale had swept it nearly all away.

Mr. Langley met them as they tramped into the hall. The old gentleman
was glad to see his assistant, for he had begun to fear that the latter
might have tried to row over during the evening, and met with disaster.
As they sat round the stove in his room he said, "We don't need any
wrecks inside the beach. We shall have enough outside, I'm afraid. I
hear there is one schooner in trouble now."

"That so?" asked Captain Eri. "Where is she?"

"On the Hog's Back shoal, they think. One of the life-saving crew told
McLaughlin that they saw her last night, when the gale first began,
trying to make an offing, and that wreckage was coming ashore this
morning. Captain Davis was going to try to reach her with the boat, I
believe."

"I should like to be at the life-saving station when they land," said
Ralph. "It would be a new experience for me. I've seen the crew drill
often enough, but I have never seen them actually at work."

"What d'you say if we go down to the station?" asked the Captain. "That
is, if Mr. Langley here can spare you."

"Oh, I can spare him," said the superintendent. "There is nothing of
importance to be done here just now. But it will be a terrible walk down
the beach this morning."

"Wind 'll be at our backs, and we're rigged for it, too. What d'you say,
Mr. Hazeltine?"

Ralph was only too glad of the opportunity to see, at least, the finish
of a rescuing expedition, and he said so. So they got into the oilskins
again, pulled their "sou'westers" down over their ears, and started on
the tramp to the life-saving station.

The electrician is not likely to forget that walk. The wind was, as
the Captain said, at their backs, but it whistled in from the sea with
terrific strength, and carried the sleet with it. It deluged them with
water, and plastered them with flying seaweed and ice. The wet sand came
in showers like hail, and beat against their shoulders until they felt
the sting, even through their clothes. Toward the bay was nothing but
gray mist, streaked with rain and sleet; toward t