helped an' to hold out a hope o'
rescue, but there wasn't no answer. Only once in a great while could any
one on shore see those ghosts o' ships 'way out on the bar. An' every
time the snow settled down, it was guessin' if they'd be there next time
it cleared away, or not.

"Seein' that there was nothin' doin' with the yawl, the crowd reckoned
on callin' us in to the deal. We was the nearest life-savin' station to
Chocolay bar, an' we was over a hundred miles away."

"A hundred miles!"

"All o' that an' more. We was on Ship Island, six miles from Houghton.
As I was sayin', seein' that nothin' could be done from their end, Cap'n
John Frink, master of a tug, hiked off to the telegraph office at
Marquette, 'n' called up Houghton. That's a hundred 'n' ten miles off,
by rail. He told 'em o' the wrecks 'n' said he thought as we could get
'em off if we could come right down. The wires were down between
Houghton 'n' Ship Islan' and there wa'n't no way o' lettin' us know. The
operators sent word all over, to try an' get a message to us, an' mighty
soon nigh everybody on the peninsula knowed that we'd been sent for.

"The skipper of a big tug in Houghton heard about it, jest as he was
goin' to bed. He come racin' down to the wharf an' rousted out the crew.
His engineer was still on board an' they got steam up like winkin'. The
gale was blowin' even worse up our way, but the old tug snorted into it
jest the same. Out into the dark an' the snow an' the storm she snubbed
along, tootin' her whistle like as if it were the Day of Jedgment. An'
if it had been," continued the old man in parenthesis, "no one would've
known it in that storm!"

"When did you see the tug?" queried the boy.

"Couldn't see nothin'," was the answer, "we jest heard that ol' whistle
toot. One o' the men guessed it was the big tug all right an' wondered
if she was ashore somewheres with a tow. But, fust thing we know, she
come up out o' the muck o' snow an' sleet an' the ol' skipper bellered
to us through a speakin'-trumpet that he was come to take us to a wreck.
We snaked the gear on to that tug in about half no time, takin' the big
surf-boat an' all the apparatus. The tug was a blowin' off steam, like
as if she was connected to a volcaner. I tell you there must have been
some fire under them boilers. An' when we started--I'm an old hand, boy,
but I'm tellin' ye that I never thought to see Houghton. The ol' skipper
sent that tug through at racin' speed lik