e
near the friendly fire that was burning as a beacon.

Once he fancied he heard men shouting during a lull in the roar of the
elements; but the coming of another smothering billow shut out the
friendly sounds.

Closer he was flung, until he could again hear the shouts of men, but
the baffling seas kept playing with him, sending him up on the breaking
wave only to once more snatch him back, until the poor boy almost
despaired of living through the dreadful ordeal.

He tried his best to raise his voice, but the cry he gave utterance to
was so feeble that even if heard it must have been taken for the note of
some storm bird attracted by the light of the beacon fire.

Just when he was giving way to despair, he saw the figures of men
running along the beach close to the edge of the waves, and new hope
awoke in his breast that his predicament had been seen.

Now they were pushing into the sea, holding one another's hands, and
forming a living chain, with a sturdy fellow at the end to snatch the
victim of the wreck out of the jaws of death.

The precious sight was at that instant shut out, for again there came a
deluge of water from behind, overwhelming the boy on the floating spar.

Darry felt something take hold upon him, which, in his excited
condition, he at first believed to be a shark; but, on the contrary, it
proved to be the fingers of the man at the outer end of the line.

Once they closed upon the person of the shipwrecked cabin boy they could
not be easily induced to let go, and amid shouts of triumph, spar and
lad were speedily dragged up on the beach beyond reach of the hungry
waves.

He was dimly conscious of being released from his friendly float, and
tenderly carried a short distance to the shelter of a house.

It was the life-saving station to which the boy had been taken by his
rescuers.

[ILLUSTRATION: HE WAS DIMLY CONSCIOUS OF BEING RELEASED FROM HIS
FRIENDLY FLOAT.]

Here he was wrapped in blankets, and placed close to a warm fire in
order to restore his benumbed faculties; while some hot liquid being
forced between his pallid lips served to give new strength to his body.

In less than ten minutes he opened his eyes and looked around.

Kind faces, even though rough and bearded, surrounded him, and he knew
that for once he had cheated the sea of a victim.

As strength came back he began to take an interest in what was passing
around him, especially when he saw several men carried in, whom