e
stranger was of large size, and seemed well-dressed, though his
clothes were anything but presentable now. His face was partly
concealed by the collar of his coat, which was turned up, and Larry
noted that the man had a heavy beard and moustache.

These details he took in quickly while he was buttoning his oilskin
jacket tighter around his neck for another dash into the storm.
Then, as he opened the door of the hut to go in search of a
coast-guard, Bailey began to strip the wet garments from the
unconscious man.

Larry was met by a heavy gust of wind and a dash of rain as he went
outside again. He bent his head to the blast and made his way down
the beach, the lantern he carried making fantastic shadows on the
white sand.

He had not gone far before he saw a figure coming toward him. He
waited, and in a few minutes was joined by George Tucker.

"Mr. Bailey wants you to come to his place and help him save a man
who just came in on a raft," said Larry.

"Can't do it, my boy. I was just coming for him to help us launch
the life-boat. We need all the men we can get, though we've got help
from the station below us. Captain Needam sent me after Bailey."

"I don't believe he'll come," said Larry. "He'll not want to leave
the man he pulled from the ocean."

"No, I don't s'pose he will," said George. "He may save a life. But
we've got to try for the steamer. She's going to pieces, and there
are many aboard of her, though I'm afraid there'll be fewer by
morning."

"I'll come and help you," said the reporter. "I don't know much
about life-boats, but I'm strong."

"Come along, then," said the coast guard.

They made their way down the beach, Larry accepting, in the manner
newspaper reporters soon become accustomed to, the new role he was
suddenly called on to play.

While he is thus journeying through the storm to aid in saving life,
there will be an opportunity to tell you something about his past,
and how he came to be a reporter on a leading New York newspaper.

Larry's introduction to a newspaper life was told of in the first
volume of this series, entitled "From Office Boy to Reporter." At
the start the youth lived with his mother, who was a widow, and his
two sisters and a brother, on a farm in New York State.

The farm was sold for an unpaid mortgage after the death of Larry's
father, and the little family came to New York to visit a sister of
Mrs. Dexter, as Larry thought he could find work in the big ci