r mother stand trembling. Tom can do but little except hold on to
the end of one of the ropes. The boat draws nearer--then down she
comes. The sea follows, ready to sweep all out of the boat, as if
disappointed of its prey; but those on shore each grasp a man. Tom
seizes his master with his hook, and drags him up the beach. Others
attend to the boat. She is quickly hauled up, and all are safe.
Margery and her mother were soon in the captain's arms: they were
recompensed for all they had suffered by seeing him safe. But where
were those they had gone out to rescue? Were none preserved? Yes! one
person had been discovered alone, of the numbers who had been on board
the ship--a black boy, but he could speak but a few words of English,
and could give no account of the ship.

The captain, with his wife and daughter, and Tom leading the young
stranger, now hurried up towards the tower. The captain stopped,
however, for a moment before he went. "Thank ye, lads, for what you've
done!" he said; "it was your best, and you could do no more; and one
life saved is better than none. As soon as you've shaken yourselves
dry, come up to the tower, and such fare as I can offer you I'll give it
gladly."

"Thank ye, sir, thank ye!" answered the crew of the boat, "we'll come by
and by, if it's only to drink yours and the missus's health."

Before entering the tower, the captain gave a glance over the ocean.
The mist had again cleared off completely, and his keen eye discovered
far out a small object--what it was he could not determine. He pointed
it out to his daughter. Throwing off her wet cloak, she hurried to the
telescope, that she might ascertain what the object was. She looked
eagerly, as it was, probably, she thought, a part of the wreck. After
watching it a short time, it became evident to her that it was being
drifted by the tide and wind towards the shore. She called her father,
who by this time had put on his dry clothes. He asked her to point out
the spot where she had first seen it. "Yes--yes, it may possibly drift
into the bay!" he exclaimed; "but it will be midnight before it can
reach the shore. I must go out, however, and set men to watch, for it
is large enough to support a dozen or more people, though it is scarcely
possible that they should have clung on in that heavy sea out there."

Once more the Captain and Tom, habited in their foul-weather clothes,
repaired to the beach. Darkness was coming o