Then Badeau reached up and shook Peabody's leg. “Wake up there, Herm! Look down the beach.” “Wha--what's that? I don't see anything.” “What are your eyes for?” “Oh--team o' horses, eh. What's the crowd doing?” “Can't you see the beach cart?” “No--is it? Coming right along, ain't they.” The cart was hauled up at a spot opposite the _Dean_. Over the ice-cones Badeau and Peabody could see the crew bustling about, until suddenly the crowd fell back, and they caught the shine of a brass gun and saw a projectile leap into the air trailing a line behind it. “Not by fifty yards! It'll take a bigger charge than that. There--they're getting out another.” Another moment of preparation, and another projectile came spinning toward them, passing high over their heads and directly between the foremast and the stump of the mainmast. “How're we going to get 'er, Hunch? The topmast stays are down; I couldn't ever get down to that deck. Couldn't trust my hands, you see--all right except for my hands.” “You stay here, and keep still,” said Badeau. He drew out his knife and cut the rope that lashed him to the shrouds; then worked his way painfully down to the deck. Holding now to the rail, now to the loose end of a stay, he fought through the waves, picked up the line, mounted with it to the cross-trees, and unaided hauled the heavier line out through the surf, and made the tackle fast to the foremast. The men on shore fell to with a will and sent out the hawser; and in another moment it was fast and taut, and the breeches buoy was dancing out to the schooner. “Easy now,” said Hunch, as they lowered Buckingham into the canvas breeches. “Lash 'im in, Hunch; lash 'im in! I'd do it--but my hands----” They watched him without a word as the buoy went shoreward. The line sagged so low under his weight that half a dozen waves passed over him. “They'll drown 'im!” said Peabody. Badeau was silent. Buckingham was lifted to the beach, and the empty buoy came back. “You go next, Hunch.” “Get in--don't stop to talk!” “Well--you see how it is--I guess you're a little better off than I am. You stand it better.” “For God's sake, get in!” Peabody snivelled a little as he swung off and went swinging down the line, his legs dangling grotesquely. Hunch clung to the ratlines, looking after him with a wild gleam in his eyes. When the buoy came back for the last time he caught it with one hand, then hesitated. He glanced down at the schooner's hull. Why should he go ashore at all? What was the use now? He looked at the crowd. They were waving at him, probably they were shouting. Then he found himself getting in and sliding off toward the shore. CHAPTER X--JIM BARTLETT CALLS |ALL the rest of the day Hunch paced up and down on the shore ice, watching the schooner until the foremast went over and the timber was strewn for a mile along the beach.