ar she
was to the shore, though evidently they were not aware of the still
nearer danger of the treacherous sandbank. An exclamation of dismay and
pity escaped those who were looking at her.

"If she had been half a mile to the nor'ard she might have stood through
Norton Gut and been safe," observed Halliburt; "but if she is a stranger
there is little chance of her hauling off in time to escape the sands."

While he was speaking, the sternmost ship was seen to come to the wind;
her yards were braced up, and now, apparently aware of her danger, she
endeavoured to stand off the land before the rising gale should render
the undertaking impossible. The hard-pressed chase directly afterwards
attempted to follow her example. She was already on a wind when again
the mist closed over the ocean, and she was hidden from sight.

"We will keep the _Nancy_ where she is," said Halliburt; "we don't know
what may happen. If yonder ship drives on the sands--and she has but a
poor chance of keeping off them, I fear--we cannot let her people perish
without trying to save them; and though it may be a hard job to get
alongside the wreck, yet some of the poor fellows may be drifted away
from her on rafts or spars, and we may be able to pick them up.
Whatever happens, we must do our best."

"Ay, ay, Adam," answered several of his hardy crew, who stood around
him; "where you think fit to go we are ready to go too."

The party had not long to wait before their worst apprehensions were
realised. The dull report of a gun, which their practised ears told
them came from Norton Sands, was heard; in another minute the sound of a
second gun boomed over the waters; a third followed even before the same
interval had elapsed. That the ship had struck and was in dire distress
there could be no doubt, but when they gazed at the dark, heaving waves
which rolled in crested with foam, and just discernible in the fast
waning twilight, and felt the fierce blast against which even they could
scarcely stand upright on the slippery pier, hardy and bold as they
were, they hesitated about venturing forth to the rescue of the hapless
crew. Long before they could reach the wreck darkness would be resting
on the troubled ocean; they doubted, indeed, whether they could force
their boat out in the teeth of the fierce gale.

Adam took a turn on the pier. His heart was greatly troubled. He had
never failed, if a boat could live, to be among the first to dash