en, and he heard it plainly.

"Cap'n!" said he, and at the word Captain Cephas was sitting on the
side of his bunk, listening. He knew from his companion's attitude,
plainly visible in the light of a lantern which hung on a hook at the
other end of the room, that he had been awakened to listen. Again came
the cry.

"That's distress at sea," said Captain Cephas. "Harken!"

They listened again for nearly a minute, when the cry was repeated.

"Bounce on deck, boys!" said Captain Cephas, getting out on the floor.
"There's some one in distress off shore."

Captain Eli jumped to the floor, and began to dress quickly.

"It couldn't be a call from land?" he asked hurriedly. "It don't sound
a bit to you like a boatswain's whistle, does it?"

"No," said Captain Cephas, disdainfully. "It's a call from sea." Then,
seizing a lantern, he rushed down the companionway.

As soon as he was convinced that it was a call from sea, Captain Eli
was one in feeling and action with Captain Cephas. The latter hastily
opened the draughts of the kitchen stove, and put on some wood, and by
the time this was done Captain Eli had the kettle filled and on the
stove. Then they clapped on their caps and their pea-jackets, each
took an oar from a corner in the back hall, and together they ran down
to the beach.

The night was dark, but not very cold, and Captain Cephas had been to
the store that morning in his boat.

Whenever he went to the store, and the weather permitted, he rowed
there in his boat rather than walk. At the bow of the boat, which was
now drawn up on the sand, the two men stood and listened. Again came
the cry from the sea.

"It's something ashore on the Turtle-back Shoal," said Captain Cephas.

"Yes," said Captain Eli, "and it's some small craft, fer that cry is
down pretty nigh to the water."

"Yes," said Captain Cephas. "And there's only one man aboard, or else
they'd take turns a-hollerin'."

"He's a stranger," said Captain Eli, "or he wouldn't have tried, even
with a cat-boat, to get in over that shoal on ebb-tide."

As they spoke they ran the boat out into the water and jumped in, each
with an oar. Then they pulled for the Turtle-back Shoal.

Although these two captains were men of fifty or thereabout, they were
as strong and tough as any young fellows in the village, and they
pulled with steady strokes, and sent the heavy boat skimming over the
water, not in a straight line toward the Turtle-back Shoal