There was no opportunity for comment upon this wonder.
Skillfully the lifeboat was brought around under the lee of the wreck.
Already most of her crew had crept down to the rail and were waiting,
half submerged, to drop into the lifeboat. But one figure was still
visible high up in the shrouds.
When the waves sucked out from under her the keel of the lifeboat
almost scratched the reef. Then it rose on a swell to the very rail of
the wreck, wedged so tightly on the rock.
The castaways came inboard rapidly, bringing their injured skipper with
them. The lifeboat was quickly overburdened with human freight.
"No more! No more!" shouted Cap'n Trainor. "We'll have to make
another trip."
"Where's the professor? Bring down the professor! There he is!"
yelled the mate of the _Curlew_, who had given his attention to the
injured master of the wrecked craft. "Who lashed him fast up there?"
There was a movement forward. The storekeeper had got up and pulled a
stout-armed member of the _Curlew's_ crew into his place.
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