Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1896-02-29

deserted. Her crew had sought safety
on shore, We Thought ourselves es-
ceedingIy fortunate that their vessel
had been In our way.
But we had been upon the decl,
scarcely 20 minutes when the captain
startled us with the announcement that
the vessel WINS rapidly filling. 1t waa
evident that she had dragged from the
harbor. and first striking upon the reef,
had swung TO her present position.
While the captain searched for spare
oar, grasped the line BY which had
fastened the dory and was Mortified to
find 1t slack. No dory Was there.--the
rope which had held her trailed away
astern and was lost In the darkness
Our last hope seemed to have departed
But no--as peered through the
gloom caught sight of a boat attached
to long warp that trailedover the taft.
rail of the schooner. 1t was seire
boat. We quickly drew 1t up and got
into It.
Our drift In the dory had carried us
considerably to the leeward of Smutty
Nose, SO that in our present position the
force of the sea was much broken. Az
we crouched beneath the gunwalt OF
our new refuge, momentarily expecting
to see the abandoned schooner go down,
a light from Smutty Nose gradually
shone out over the waters.
We saw that fire had been ldndled
upon the island. Down at the waters
edge people were moving about among
the rocks. In a little while a boat
seemed to leave the shore and drift slow
ly toward us.
As her erratic movements seemed to
indicate that she had no one aboard, but
was drifting at the win of the wind,
attached no special significance to her
appearance, though ] glanced toward
her occasionally. Yet nearer she came,
sometimes directly toward us.
At times heave Of the sea would
throw her far to one side, then she
would seem to linger moment, to
start Off anew in our direction. Hall
dazed from exhaustion, watched her
with tagging interest until she was
close at hand. Then saw the captain
reach out and grasp her by the gun
vale and hold her fast alongside.
He shouted for us to get into her. No
sooner had we all obeyed than she
started swiftly for the shore. Then ]
perceived that long warp led from her
to Smutty Nose and that the people
there were pulling us toward them.
.
Owing to the direction of the current
the boat could not be dragged back to
the point from which she started, and
we struck the outer edge of the wide
reef of rocks. 1t was nearly low tide,
and, though the sea did not break upon
the reef, every wave that rolled through
the narrow passage boiled up over IL
in a swelling flood, submerging the
rocks many feet, to subside again, leav-
ing them entirely bare.
To run this gauntlet was our next
trial. Waiting until sea retired, we
started over the slippery, weed-grown
rocks and ran as fast as we could until
an incoming wave overlook us. Then
we flung ourselves fiat upon the reef
while the flood boiled up over us, clutch
ing the rockwell with both hands and
clinging to resist the terrible undertow
backward.
When the refux left the reef bare
again we rose and ran once more. Four
times the flood passed over us. Then,
breathless, bruised and half dead, !
felt grasp upon my collar and was
dragged up out of the grip of the sea-
safe at last.-Youth's Companion.