nguish anything clearly, until close to the wreck.
Then it was seen that the whole crew had taken to the rigging of the
mainmast--the topmast of which had been carried away by the fall of the
foremast and mizzen.

A lusty cheer told that the shipwrecked men were still strong in hope,
though their situation was terrible; for every lurch of the hull shook
the swaying top so violently as almost to tear even the strong seamen
from their grasp.

"Jeff," said Bowers, who sat on the same thwart with his friend, "did ye
not recognise a voice in that cheer?"

"Ay, that I did," returned Jeff, with feelings of great anxiety. "'Twas
uncommon like Captain Millet."

"Look out for the rope!" roared one of the lifeboat men, as he swung and
discharged the loaded stick with a line attached.

The heave was successful. The men on the maintop of the wreck caught
the line, and by means of it passed a stout warp between the mast and
the boat, down which they began to shin like squirrels, for the prompt
appearance of their rescuers had not left time for the exhaustion of
their strength.

"Is your vessel the _North Star_, commanded by Captain Millet?" shouted
Jeff in the ear of the first arrival, for the noise of raging elements
rendered ordinary tones almost useless.

"Ay, she is," replied the man; "but you won't see _him_ till the last of
us is safe aboard."

"Hallo! Captain Millet!" cried Jeff, with a roar that almost equalled
the elements.

"Ay, ay, is that you, Jeff?" came back in a similar roar (but greatly
softened by distance) from the swirling spray-clouds that raged above
the wreck.

"Cheer up, Captain; we'll save you all right," returned our
coastguardsman in another enthusiastic roar, which of itself did
something to cheer up all who heard it.

About a dozen of the sailors had been got into the lifeboat, when a
tremendous rending sound was heard, followed by a loud cry of alarm, as
the mast broke off a few feet above the deck, and plunged, with the men
still upon it, into the boiling sea. To add to the confusion and
terror, some part of the cordage caught the lifeboat, and completely
sank as well as overturned it.

To an ignorant observer it might have seemed that all hope was gone--
that every man must perish. But this was not so. The buoyant qualities
of the magnificent lifeboat brought it to the surface like a cork the
instant it was freed. Its self-righting qualities turned it on its
keel. The self-actin