But just then the patrol came running up, almost out of breath.
From one man Frazer learned that his surmise concerning the appearance of the lawless wreckers on the shore was well founded, and that they had been up to some mischief further south, where signs of lights had been noticed by this coastguard.
The word was given to take their places, as the boat was about to be launched.
They had waited a brief time to allow the newly-arrived men a chance to recover their wind for they would need it presently, when once upon the heaving bosom of the deep.
Paul squeezed the hand of his young friend.
How he envied him this chance to prove his courage and to pull an oar in a life-saving trip.
The rockets had ceased to ascend as though either the supply had given out, or else conditions had become so bad that there was no longer a chance to carry on this work.
There was a simultaneous movement on the part of the entire crew, and as the sturdy men put their shoulders to the task the surfboat shot forward just at the proper instant when a wave expended itself upon the sloping beach.
Its prow entered the water, and those furthest ahead sprang into their places, whipping the long oars into the rowlocks for a struggle against the force of the next onrushing billow.
He had not watched that other launching for nothing, and understood just what was required of him, as though through long practice.
The oars dipped deep, and hardy muscles strained back of them.
Slowly but surely the boat gained against all the fury of the onrushing tide, and foot by foot they began to leave the shore.
Paul was shouting, swinging his hat, as Darry could see while he tugged at his task.
Once fully launched upon the swelling bosom of the sea, the progress of the surfboat was more rapid, though every yard had to be won by the most arduous of labor, the men straining like galley slaves under the lash; but in this case it was a sense of duty rather than the whip of the tyrant that urged them on.
No man but the helmsman saw anything of the steamer that was fast upon the cruel jaws of the reef, for it was against orders for anyone to turn his head.
Such an incautious movement might throw him out of balance in the swing of the stroke and bring about disaster, or at least temporarily disarrange their regular advance; they had to trust everything to the wisdom and experience of the man who hung on to the long steering oar, and blindly obey his shouted instructions.