der beach.

The newly risen gale was yet a long way from them, the low moaning of
the tempest seemed distant.

The swell beneath the yawl's keel suddenly heaved into a gigantic wave
upon the summit of which the boat was lifted like a chip in a
mill-stream.

Some of the crew shouted aloud, in both amazement and fear. The
propeller raced madly; then the engine stopped--dead.

"Out oars! Look alive, men!" was the ensign's command.

The clumsy raft tugged at the end of her hawse. The yawl went over the
top of the wave and began to coast dizzily down the descent.

The rope which held it to its tow cut through the swell. It tautened--it
snapped!

The loose end whipped the length of the yawl viciously and threw two of
the crew flat into the boat's bottom.

The oars were out. Ensign MacMasters yelled an order to pull. Philip
Morgan and Al Torrance found themselves throwing their entire strength
against the oars.

The raft rose staggeringly upon the huge wave behind the boat. Mr. Mudge
had a steering oar out; but the raft wabbled on the summit of the swell
as though drunken. They saw the castaways upon the raft cowering
helplessly.

Then like a shot the white wave rode down upon them with the pallid
storm-cloud overhead. The yawl was headed into the gale and the oarsmen
pulled like mad.

Mr. MacMasters yelled at them. They did their very best. The sleet
whipped their shoulders like a thousand-lashed knout. The darkness of
the tempest shut down upon them and the raft was instantly lost to
sight.

"Frenchy! Ikey!" Whistler Morgan gasped, and Torry heard him.

But they could do nothing to aid their chums. Duty in any case held them
to their work. They pulled with the very last ounce of strength they
possessed.

The yawl's head was kept to the wind and sea; but it was doubtful if she
made any progress.

"Pull, men! Pull!" shouted the ensign again and again.

He inspired them, and perhaps their straining at the oars did keep the
yawl from overturning at that time. Yet such ultimate fate for it seemed
unavoidable. The wind and sea lashed it so furiously that Whistler told
himself he would not have been surprised if the boat and crew were
driven completely under the surface.

He had seen a good bit of bad weather before this; but nothing like what
they suffered at this time. The warring elements fairly bruised their
bodies. Sometimes the boys felt themselves pounded so viciously between
the shoulders that they c