hose who are
apparently drowned. [See Note 2.]

After the back of the ship was broken, and the wreck overwhelmed, the
rocket apparatus of course became useless, as the mast to which the
ropes were attached broke off close to the deck, and the ropes
themselves became so entangled with the wreck as to be unmanageable; but
before this catastrophe occurred good service had been done, for no
fewer than sixty of the passengers of the ill-fated "Trident" had been
saved by this means alone. The lifeboat had been the means of saving
one hundred and twenty lives; and fifteen men, who succeeded in swimming
to the beach, were rescued with the utmost difficulty by the people on
shore.

Among these last was the captain, who, with that heroic self-devotion
which seems to be a common characteristic of British seamen, had made up
his mind to be the last man to quit the ship. This intention was
frustrated by the breaking up of the vessel. In the confusion he was
swept beyond the reach of the lifeboat, and gained the beach he scarce
knew how. Here he was launched on the shingle by a billow, and washed
high up on the beach. He grasped the loose pebbles with the energy of
despair, but the cataract of white water that rushed back as the wave
retired, swept him with irresistible force into the sea. Again this
happened and as he dug his fingers into the moving gravel, and felt how
hopeless was his case, a cry of anguish burst from him.

The cry was heard by Guy Foster, who, with a rope round his waist, had
been for the last half-hour engaged in rescuing men and women from the
fatal grasp of these retiring waves.

"This way, lads, fetch the lantern, look alive!" he shouted, and sprang
towards the part of the shore whence the cry had proceeded, followed by
a crowd of seamen who had assisted him by holding the rope.

Guy was much exhausted. Six times already had he plunged into the
boiling surf and been dragged out with a fellow-creature in his arms.
He had removed the loop of the rope for a few minutes, and now held it
in his hand as he ran along the beach looking anxiously at the surf.

Once again the captain was hurled on the beach, but in so exhausted a
condition that he could make no effort to save himself. He rolled so
near to Guy's feet that the latter dropped the rope in his haste as he
leaped towards the drowning man. He caught him round the waist just as
the broken billow began to rush back. For one moment Guy stood fir