Page:Moving Picture Boys on the Coast.djvu/206

196 "She can't go until we git 'em ashore!" yelled the captain of the life-savers. "I won't let her! Here, Jim Black, you mosey back there and pile more sand around that anchor. Now then, men, pull as though you meant it. What! You're not going to have it said that you let a little cat's paw of wind like this beat you; are you?"

Something of the captain's courage seemed to infuse itself into his men. They had been half-hearted before, but they were brave now. Once more they ranged themselves on the rope that was used to haul the buoy from the ship to shore. It was as though the waves had tried to intimidate them, and had been bidden defiance.

The weight of the two persons in the buoy was almost too much. The waves had a doubly large surface against which to break, and well the captain knew that there was a limit to the strain to which the tackle could be subjected. Once the main rope leading from the anchor to the ship, on which cable the buoy ran, parted, and nothing could save those last two lives. No wonder the captain wanted haste.

"Haul away!" he bellowed through the roar of the wind, using his hands as a trumpet. "Haul away, men!"

His companions braced themselves in the shifting sand. They bent their backs. Their arms