n
in shelter.

Harbour Street was empty. No one saw us as we glided down it towards
the jetty. We heard the church clock strike half-past eleven, the
chimes being swept past us on the wind.

As we turned out of Harbour Street on to the jetty the force of the gale
once more staggered us, and we had almost to crawl forward. There were
lights and the cheery glow of a fire in the "look-out," and we knew
there must be plenty of sailors there. But somehow at this time of
night we did not care to be discovered even by our friends the sailors.
So we kept on, holding on to the chains, towards where the red light
burned at the jetty-head.

We were too excited to be afraid. One of those strange spirits of
adventure had seized upon us which make boys ready for anything, and the
thought of standing alone at midnight at the pier-head in a storm like
that did not even dismay us.

But before we were half-way along we found that it was not the easy
thing we imagined. A huge wave struck the jetty behind the wall under
which we crept, and next moment a deluge of spray and foam shot up and
fell, drenching us to the skin. And almost before we knew what had
happened another and another followed.

We turned instinctively towards the "look-out," but as we did so a
fourth wave, huger than all the rest, swept the jetty from end to end,
and but for the chain, on to which we clung, we should have been washed
off.

Our only chance was to run for the nearest shelter, and that was the lee
of the tarpaulin-covered lifeboat, which lay up on its stocks, out of
the reach of the spray, and seeming to us to offer as much protection
ashore as it could do afloat.

Half a dozen staggering steps brought us to it. But even in this short
space another wave had drenched us. We were thankful to creep under its
friendly shelter, and once there we wondered for the first time how we
were ever to get back. Our hearts were beginning to fail us at last.
We were cold and shivering, and wet through, and now the rain came in
gusts, to add to our misery.

"Couldn't we get inside?" said Jack, with chattering teeth.

As he spoke a shower of salt spray leapt over the boat and deluged us.
Yes; why not get inside under the tarpaulin, where we could shelter at
once from the cold, and the wet, and the wind? Nobody could see us, and
if any one came we could jump out, and presently, perhaps, the storm
might quiet down, and we could get back to bed.

Jack had