by land.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

SAVING THE PASSENGERS AND CREW--OUR HEROES DISTINGUISH THEMSELVES.

When Bax and his party arrived at Saint Margaret's Bay, the scene of
wreck and death had already begun.

The vessel was just discernible in the midst of the turmoil of warring
elements that filled the dark air with misty spray. A boat had tried to
reach the shore with a number of passengers--chiefly men--in her. Her
fate was quickly sealed. A huge breaker upset her, and six of the dead
bodies of her crew had already been plucked from the sea, and laid on
the shingle. The rest were being hurled on the land and swept back by
the force of the returning waves, until the people assembled there
caught and dragged them also beyond their reach.

Messengers had already been sent to the nearest lifeboat stations, and
the people who remained behind were either occupied in attempting to
recover the bodies of the drowned, as above described, or in suggesting
impossible plans for conveying a line on board the ill-fated vessel.

"Ha! here comes the man as'll tell us wot's to be done, and do it too!"
cried one of the boatmen, "wot say, Bax, can we git a line off, think
'ee?"

Bax stood on the edge of the roaring sea, silent and motionless, with
his arms crossed on his broad chest, and his bold gaze directed to the
wreck.

"No," said he, after standing a few moments thus, "it can't be done. No
mortal man could cross the surf on the inner rocks; but there's a point
o' rocks not far to the nor'ard; does any one know how far the tide may
cover 'em just now?"

"About half," answered several voices eagerly.

"Ay, so't does," observed a coast-guard-man, "but with sich a surf
beatin' on 'em there ain't a rock on the whole pint above water this
minute."

"Come, let's go see," cried Bax, snatching a coil of light rope from the
hand of a man who stood close by, and hastening away with it in the
direction of the rocky point referred to.

In a few seconds he stood on its outer extremity, with Guy Foster,
Coleman, and a few of the more courageous men at his side.

The point on which Bax stood was indeed a position of great danger.
Besides being whelmed in driving spray, so that it was a matter of
extreme difficulty to see more than a few yards in any direction, the
waves at times rushed up to and over them with such violence as to reach
the knees of those who stood there, and threatened to wash them off.
Nevertheless, from this