hey could see the lifeboat more clearly.

She rose and sank, rose and sank, upon wave after wave, all the time
fighting her way out from the shore. Again and again they heard the
awesome cry. The captain was warning his men how to pull to escape the
charging timbers.

The next breaker that rolled in brought with it several great planks that
were dashed upon the beach with fearful force. The splinters flew into
the air, the wind whipping them across the sands. The anxious spectators
had to dodge.

The timbers ground together as the sea sucked them back. Again and again
they were rolled in the surf, splintering against each other savagely.

"One of those would go through that boat like she was made of paper!"
bawled one of the fishermen.

At that moment they saw the lifeboat lifted upon another huge wave. She
was a full cable's length from the shore, advancing very slowly. In the
glare of the Coston light the anxious spectators saw her swerve to port
to escape a huge timber which charged upon her.

The girls screamed. The great stick struck the lifeboat a glancing blow.
In an instant she swung broadside to the waves, and then rolled over and
over in the trough of the sea.

A chorus of shouts and groans went up from the crowd on shore. The
lifeboat and her courageous crew had disappeared.

CHAPTER IX

THE GIRL IN THE RIGGING

"Oh! isn't it awful!" cried Helen, clinging to Ruth Fielding. "I wish
I hadn't come."

"They're lost!" quavered Mary Cox. "They're drowned!"

But Heavy was more practical. "They can't drown so easily--with those
cork-vests on 'em. There! the boat's righted."

It was a fact. Much nearer the shore, it was true, but the lifeboat was
again right side up. They saw the men creep in over her sides and seize
the oars which had been made fast to her so that they could not be lost.

But the lifeboat was not so buoyant, and it was plain that she had been
seriously injured. Cap'n Abinadab dared not go on to the wreck.

"That timber mashed her in for'ard," declared a fisherman standing
near the girls. "They've got to give it up this time."

"Can't steer in such a clutter of wreckage," declared another. "Not
with an oared boat. She ought to be a motor. Every other station on this
coast, from Macklin to Cape Brender, has a lifeboat driven by a motor.
Sokennet allus has to take other folks' leavin's."

Helplessly the lifeboat drifted shoreward. The girls watched her, almost
holding their