savers hastened
their pace, but it was hard work dragging their apparatus through the
sand.

"Let's help 'em!" cried Joe. "The ship is drifting up this way. If we
make pictures it will have to be from about here. Let's help drag the
wagon!"

"That's right!" echoed Blake, and the boys, leaving their cameras in
charge of Mr. Hadley, hastened to relieve the fagged-out life savers.
The fishermen and some of the theatrical men joined in also.

"Right about here," directed the captain of the life saving crew, when
the cart containing the gun, "shears" and other parts of the breeches
buoy had been dragged farther along. "She'll strike about here, I
fancy."

The doomed vessel was now much nearer shore, and on her wave-washed
decks could be seen the sailors, some of them lashed to the stumps of
masts, others to whatever of the standing rigging offered a hold
against the grasp of the sea.

"Get ready, men!" the commander went on. "The wind is bringing her in
fast, and it's going to be against us shooting a line over her, but
we'll do our best. If she strikes now, so much the better."

"Why?" asked Blake, wonderingly.

"Because then she'll be stationary, and we can keep our main line taut.
If she keeps drifting inshore while we're hauling the buoy back and
forth it means that we'll have to keep tightening up all the while."

"There, she's struck!" suddenly called one of the life savers. All gazed
out to sea, where, amid a smother of foam, the craft could be seen. Her
change in position was evident. Her decks sloped more, and instead of
drifting she remained in one position.

"The rocks have gripped her," spoke old Abe, solemnly. "She'll go to
pieces soon now."

"Then get busy!" cried C. C. Piper, who seemed not to have lost his
strangely cheerful mood. "Save those men!"

"That's what we're going to do," said the captain. "All ready now, men."

"And that means we'd better get busy, Joe," said Blake. "We can't do
anything to help just now. Besides, there are a lot of men here. We
must get our cameras in place."

"That's right, Blake," and the two lads got their apparatus in shape to
operate, Mr. Hadley doing the same. The machines were set up on some
sand hills, far enough back to be out of the spray, which was like a fog
close to the surface of the water.

While some of the life savers and their volunteer assistants were
burying in the sand the heavy anchor that was to hold one end of the
rope on which the breech