e, Cap'n?" demanded one of his crew.

"Never you mind, lad. Step back, I tell ye. She's slewed right now,
I reckon."

"What have you got in her?" demanded the man again.

"I'm goin' to reach them folk if I can," returned Cap'n Abinadab.
"I've double charged her. If she don't carry the line this time, she
never will. And she may carry it over the wreck, even if she blows up.
Look out!"

"Don't ye do it!" cried the man, Mason, starting forward. "If you
pull that lanyard ye'll be blowed sky-high."

"Well, who should pull it if I don't?" demanded the old captain of the
station, grimly. "Guess old 'Binadab Cope ain't goin' to step back
for you young fellers yet a while. Come! git, I tell ye! Far back--afar
back."

"Oh! he'll be killed!" murmured Ruth.

"You come back here, Ruth Fielding!" commanded Tom, clutching her arm.
"If that gun blows up we want to be a good bit away."

The whole party ran back. They saw the last of the crew leave the old
captain. He stood firmly, at one side of the gun, his legs placed wide
apart; they saw him pull the lanyard. Fire spat from the muzzle of the
gun and with a shriek the shot-line was carried seaward, toward the wreck.

The old gun, double charged, turned a somersault and buried its muzzle
in the sand. The captain dodged, and went down--perhaps thrown by the
force of the explosion. But the gun did not burst.

However, he was upon his feet again in a moment, and all the crowd were
shouting their congratulations. The flying line had carried squarely over
the middle of the wreck.

"Now, will they know what to do with it?" gasped Ruth.

"Wait! see that man--that man in the middle? The line passed over his
shoulder!" cried Heavy. "See! he's got it."

"And he's hauling on it," cried Tom.

"There goes the line with the board attached," said Madge Steele,
exultantly. The girls had already examined this painted board. On it were
plain, though brief, instructions in English, French, and Italian, to
the wrecked crew as to what they should do to aid in their own rescue.
But this schooner was probably from up Maine way, or the "blue-nose
country" of Nova Scotia, and her crew would be familiar with the rigging
of the breeches buoy.

They saw, as another light was burned on the wreck, the man who had
seized the line creep along to the single mast then standing. It was
broken short off fifteen feet above the deck. He hauled out the
shot-line, and then a mate came to his assistance an