“I hope we can make something better of the lad than that. There’s too much in Benny for us to tie him down to such work, and, unless I’m greatly mistaken, he is entitled to look many pegs higher than a job as surfman.” Then the wearied crew sat themselves down for a pleasant half-hour, which would not have been enjoyed had they been forced to depend wholly upon the man who was paid for preparing their food. Not until an hour past midnight did Benny go to bed, and next morning he was down-stairs with the earliest riser of the crew. The wind had not spent its fury. On the contrary, it was blowing a full gale, bringing with it a downpour of sleet and snow which would prevent the wrecking tugs from returning to the scene of the disaster. As soon as breakfast had been eaten all the men, with the exception of him whose duty it was to remain on watch, set out to ascertain the amount of damage done, and, as a matter of course, Benny accompanied them. Fluff was given the choice of going with his master or remaining behind in the warm station, and after poking his pink nose out of doors for a single moment, he quickly retreated to the kitchen, giving evidence, as Sam Hardy declared, of “havin’ a deal of sound common-sense.” The situation of affairs in the immediate vicinity of the steamer was even worse than had been anticipated. All the lighters but one had crashed into the stranded craft, making havoc of the timbers as they forced their heavy bows into the hull, and completely destroying what the waves had previously spared. Along the shore in every direction were scattered fragments of lighters and steamer, until every cove which made in between the rocks was piled high with these evidences of devastation. “We shan’t be troubled much longer with wrecking crews,” Joe Cushing said, when they had surveyed the entire shore in the vicinity. “There’s nothin’ to be done to the steamer except freight away such parts of her as are worth the savin’, and as for the lighters, they will do no more service unless it be as kindlin’ wood.” “And yet all this might, perhaps, have been avoided if the wreckers had done their work properly; but since they didn’t, we shall be asked to explain how it happens we allowed so much property to be destroyed,” Tom Downey said with a sigh, and Sam Hardy added cheerily: “If all hands tell the truth, I’m not afraid of an investigation concernin’ last night’s work, for the crew never lived that, unaided, could have prevented the heavy craft, fitted with rotten windlasses and apologies for cables, from goin’ adrift while the wind was as strong as when we came out.” There was nothing the men could do even toward saving the wreckage nearest the shore while the storm continued so violent, and after an hour or more had been spent viewing the scene all hands returned to the station.