then he waved his hand in return, and, pointing to the
southward, ran on. Directly afterwards I saw two or three other people
running in the same direction, carrying oars over their shoulders, and a
boat-hook. I guessed that they were making for some little harbour or
sandy cove, where their boats were drawn up. I prayed that they might
come to my aid quickly, for every instant the wreck of the mast drove
nearer and nearer to the rocks. Still I cannot say that I felt much
doubt about being saved after having already been so mercifully
preserved during the night from dangers so terrific. Yet it appeared an
age before I saw a boat darting out from an opening in the rocks.
Putting her head to the seas, she dashed up towards me. She had not
come a minute too soon.

"Stand by, mon! stand by to leap aboard!" I heard a voice sing out, as
the bow of the boat came up close to where I was hanging on.

I did not require a second order; at the same time, my limbs were so
stiff and benumbed that I could scarcely have obeyed, had not two of the
men in the bow of the boat caught me by the collar, and hauled me on
board.

"Noo, round wi' her, laddies! round wi' her! we'll hear a' aboot it by
and by," cried the man at the helm.

The boat was at the time scarcely half-a-dozen fathoms from the surf,
and any sea rolling in, and breaking sooner than usual, might have
rolled her over and over and drowned all hands. With hearty tugs the
men who had so bravely rescued me pulled the boat round and out to sea,
while the mast was directly afterwards carried among the surf, and
hurled round and round, till it was cast in fragments on the rocks. I
shuddered when I saw what my fate might have been. There was little
time to exchange many words with the fishermen before the boat was
pulled into a little sandy cove, and they all, springing out, ran her up
high and dry on the beach.

"You maun be weet, laddie," said the old master of the boat, helping me
out of her with the aid of two of the other men. "Come up to my hoose,
and we'll put dry duds on ye, and then you'll tell us how ye came to be
floating on that bit of wreck there. She maun hae been a large ship ye
belonged to, I'm thinking, and ye were the only one saved? it's sad to
think of it."

Under some circumstances I should have been amused by the eagerness of
the old man to hear the account I had to give, at the same time that his
kind heart prompted him not to fatigue me by