ove."

Wheeler's awful position was not at first realised, and his cries for
help could not be heard through the din of the ocean. Finally, he was
struck down by the turbulent sea, and one of his men, signalling to
another, went to their chief's rescue. Wheeler was unconscious when he
was brought up on the beach. For his share in the rescue work, besides
the King of Sweden's medal, Wheeler received medals from the Royal
Humane Society and the Board of Trade.

In that corner of England every one is on the _qui vive_ for the
unexpected. The women have their telescopes and glasses, and they do
their share, despite the fact that the regular men of that locality are
on duty. Mrs. James's tea-refreshment place is often the near-by house
to where men are scanning the horizon with their glasses, noting the
flags on vessels, if they have any in these days, and keeping up a
peace-time look out, for it is a dangerous point in bad weather. The
Last or First House in England, whichever one wishes to consider it, is
covered with names and initials of persons from all over the world.
Curiously enough, since the war there have been no wrecks in that
theatre, while in the six months prior to the great conflict there were
two or three.

Local heads of the coast-watchers or guards have the prerogative of
commandeering horses or automobiles when necessary. If there is a ship
ashore or on the rocks, signal-rockets are sent up to collect the
coast-guards; and it would seem that a couple of these would wake most
of the persons in that corner of England.

The real business of the coast-guards, and that to which they devote
themselves in peace or war, is firing rockets over a ship in distress
and trying to land the crew.

It was ten or twelve miles from that point that I met a chief watcher
who had been blown up in a British battleship, and had thus earned a
period of shore duty. He was "carrying on" for humanity and country, and
only a short time before he had been the means of rescuing the crew of
a small neutral sailing ship--a German victim.

We sped on farther north, and every three or four miles there was the
inevitable watcher, who can telephone, telegraph, and fire rockets when
occasion demands. It is all a modernised coast-guard system, the men
being first ready for ships in distress, but always on the alert for the
enemy.

XIII. CROSSING THE CHANNEL IN WAR TIME

This is the story of a British naval officer's trip to