But he took the empty seat in the
lifeboat when he was called without saying 'yes or no'! And he pulled
with the best of us."
"He is no coward, of that I am sure," said Professor Grayling. "He
gave me his place in the boat. We can but pray that the lifeboat will
get to him in the morning."
That hope was universal. All night driftwood fires burned on the sands
and the people watched and waited for the dawn and another sight of the
schooner on the reef.
The tide brought in much wreckage; but it was mostly smashed top gear
and deck lumber. Therefore they had reason to hope that the hull of
the wreck held together.
It was just at daybreak that the wind subsided and the tide was so that
the lifeboat could be launched again. Wellriver station owned no
motor-driven craft at this time, or Cap'n Jim Trainor and his men would
have been able to reach the wreck at the height of the gale.
It was no easy matter even now to bring the lifeboat under the lee of
the battered schooner. Her masts and shrouds were overside, anchoring
her to the reef.
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