"Ah, now we're all right! Now we're all right! There'll be a boat out here for us in half-an-hour." "He's going on. He's running. He's going up to that house there." The remote beach seemed lower than the sea, and it required a searching glance to discern the little black figure. The captain saw a floating stick and they rowed to it. A bath-towel was by some weird chance in the boat, and, tying this on the stick, the captain waved it. The oarsman did not dare turn his head, so he was obliged to ask questions. "What's he doing now?" "He's standing still again. He's looking, I think.... There he goes again. Towards the house.... Now he's stopped again." "Is he waving at us?" "No, not now! he was, though." "Look! There comes another man!" "He's running." "Look at him go, would you." "Why, he's on a bicycle. Now he's met the other man. They're both waving at us. Look!" "There comes something up the beach." "What the devil is that thing?" "Why, it looks like a boat." "Why, certainly it's a boat." "No, it's on wheels." "Yes, so it is. Well, that must be the life-boat. They drag them along shore on a wagon." "That's the life-boat, sure." "No, by ----, it's--it's an omnibus." "I tell you it's a life-boat." "It is not! It's an omnibus. I can see it plain. See? One of these big hotel omnibuses." "By thunder, you're right. It's an omnibus, sure as fate. What do you suppose they are doing with an omnibus? Maybe they are going around collecting the life-crew, hey?" "That's it, likely. Look! There's a fellow waving a little black flag. He's standing on the steps of the omnibus. There come those other two fellows. Now they're all talking together. Look at the fellow with the flag. Maybe he ain't waving it." "That ain't a flag, is it? That's his coat. Why certainly, that's his coat." "So it is. It's his coat. He's taken it off and is waving it around his head. But would you look at him swing it." "Oh, say, there isn't any life-saving station there. That's just a winter resort hotel omnibus that has brought over some of the boarders to see us drown." "What's that idiot with the coat mean? What's he signaling, anyhow?" "It looks as if he were trying to tell us to go north. There must be a life-saving station up there." "No! He thinks we're fishing. Just giving us a merry hand. See? Ah, there, Willie." "Well, I wish I could make something out of those signals. What do you suppose he means?" "He don't mean anything. He's just playing." "Well, if he'd just signal us to try the surf again, or to go to sea and wait, or go north, or go south, or go to hell--there would be some reason in it. But look at him. He just stands there and keeps his coat revolving like a wheel. The ass!" "There come more people." "Now there's quite a mob. Look! Isn't that a boat?" "Where? Oh, I see where you mean. No, that's no boat." "That fellow is still waving his coat."