y as possible; when they had done so, all were found to be drowned
except one.

On the present occasion Bax seized the line as soon as it fell on the
wreck and began to haul it in-board. Guy had attached to it a pulley or
block with a stoutish rope rove through it, and soon those on shore had
the satisfaction of seeing this second and double line (named the
"whip"), hauled out by the people on the wreck. After a time it ceased
to run out, and then they knew that Bax had got hold of the pulley, and
would quickly attach it to the ship. This was soon done. Bax fastened
the pulley to the mainmast, and then caused a lantern to be shown for a
moment, to indicate that all was ready.

Still those on shore delayed to act for a minute, in order to make quite
sure that ample time had been allowed for the fastening of the pulley.
And now the all-important operation of conveying a thick hawser to the
wreck was begun. With the tackle already fast to the ship this was
comparatively easy. The _whip_ being rove through a pulley, both ends
were kept on shore and fastened together. It thus became a sort of
endless rope, by which things could be passed to the wreck and back
again. Even without any hawser at all, many lives might have been saved
by this rope; but, being small, it was liable to get broken, therefore
the end of the thick hawser was sent out and received by Bax, who bound
it also securely to the mainmast close to the pulley, about fifteen feet
above the deck.

The reader will understand that two ropes were now fastened to the
mainmast of the "Trident," their other ends being fixed to a heavy
anchor buried in the sand on shore. One of these ropes was the thick
hawser, the other the whip; but as this whip was an endless or revolving
rope, as has been explained, to an onlooker it appeared that there were
_three_ ropes stretched between the vessel and the shore, two of them
thin and one thick.

These preliminary arrangements having been made, much more rapidly than
the description of them might lead one to suppose, the purpose for which
they had been fixed soon began to be carried out. Just as the lifeboat
arrived with its first cargo of passengers, a large block or pulley was
run out along the hawser by means of the whip, having attached to it a
circular lifebuoy with a canvas bag hanging from it. This was the
contrivance into which one individual at a time was placed and drawn
ashore. Two holes in the bag allowed