Benny gazed in the direction indicated by the surfman’s outstretched hand, but failed to distinguish anything which betokened fog, until Sam called his attention to a dark line along the horizon, and also to the fact that there was a decided change in the temperature. “There’ll be a smother upon us in less than half an hour, an’ it’s fortunate I brought an extra supply of Coston signals. That’s another case, No. 8, where people would talk of luck, an’ yet it was only reasonable foresight, such as any man ought to exercise.” Sam was making his way along the coast at his best pace, which was so rapid that at times Benny was forced to run, and when ten minutes had passed the boy asked, panting for breath: “Why are you hurrying? All the crew are out to the steamer, and a watch ashore won’t be needed until quite a while after they have come back.” “True, lad; but it’s necessary to get the location of the ship well fixed in mind before the fog shuts down. Once that has been done we can go out to her without any great trouble, providin’ we’re needed.” The two arrived none too soon at the post they were to occupy. On gaining the bluff opposite the steamer, the mist, which had been rapidly creeping over the ocean, had already begun to envelop her, and no more than the spars could be distinguished. “Ten minutes’ delay, and we’d have been too late, not only to make her out, but to hear what orders Tom Downey may have to give,” the surfman said, and Benny could faintly distinguish amid the vapor a dark spot which he understood, because of Sam Hardy’s words, to be the surf-boat coming shoreward. Five minutes later the crew rested on their oars within an hundred feet of the bluff, as the keeper shouted: “Did you send a message to the city?” “Ay, sir, and there will be no tugs here much before high water.” “Keep your ears open for the steamer’s whistle, which will be sounded three times if the captain decides that he needs assistance.” “And what then, sir? It will be hard making out such a signal as that now the fog-horn has begun to blow.” It was as if the keeper had only realized this fact by thus being reminded of it, and after a brief consultation with the crew he shouted again: “We’ll come ashore on that bit of shingle just below, and you may join us there.” Having said this he gave some order to the men, and the surf-boat was pulled out to sea again, disappearing almost immediately in the fog which had by this time reached the land. “Why are they coming ashore?” Benny asked as Sam Hardy set out northward. “He counts on havin’ the surf-boat in case she may be needed, for, if this smother clears away before the moon rises, there’ll be a sea on that will trouble yonder steamer considerably.”