was another
bunch in the station to welcome us. The train was covered in ice an'
snow, an' the front of the locomotive looked like a dummy engine made
out o' plaster o' Paris.

"The station was alive with men, all just on edge with waitin'. They had
sleighs but no horses, the footin' was too bad. An' so the boat an' the
apparatus-car was put on the sleighs, an' the men dragged it along
themselves at a whole of a clip! They wouldn't even let us walk, but
toted us along in a sleigh, too."

"Why?" asked Eric.

"To keep us from bein' tired. We needed all the strength we had. An' we
made good time, I'm tellin' ye. They carried out the boat an' the cart
to the beach an' then their end of it was done. It was up to us, now.
An' I tell ye, I was anxious. There was somethin' mighty thrillin' in
that wild train ride through the night. I've often run big chances in a
boat, but this was different-like. Usooally no one knows what we're
doin', but this time, the news was bein' flashed all over the country.

"When we actooally got on the beach it didn't look so bad. The boats
were lyin' right on the bar 'bout two hundred 'n' fifty foot, off shore.
We rigged the gun, loaded her, 'n' fired. I dropped a line jest abaft
the pilot-house, where we figured the men must be waitin'. It was a good
shot an' I reckoned that there wa'n't goin' to be no trouble at all. It
heartened me right up. We'd got there in time, an' first crack out o'
the box, there was a line, right across the steamer. The path o' rescue
had been made!

"But there was one thing I hadn't figured on."

"What was that?" queried Eric excitedly.

"The weather 'n' the cold. The seas had come up, over 'n' over that
steamer, ontil the decks were one straight glare of ice. There wa'n't
nothin' a man could get hold of. If a sailor stepped out on that ice, he
couldn't stand, for she was heelin' over to port like the side of a
hill. An' the lee bulwark was torn away. Worst of all, the waves kep' a
dashin' over 'n' over without stoppin'. Our line wa'n't more'n fifteen
feet from the pilot-house, but no one couldn' get to that line without
bein' washed off.

"In a way, we'd done all that was necessary. We'd dropped a line where
they'd ought to be able to get it. We couldn't know there wa'n't no way
for 'em to do it. But when the minutes went by 'n' there was no sign
from the steamer, it begun to look bad. If it hadn't been for the ice on
the decks they was as good as rescued, but