Part 37 (1/2)
”The pain isn't so very great, and I don't mind it since we have licked the enery at ot, Mr Rayner, that you were a midshi+pman”
”No, I didn't remark that you called ht about it I just feel as I did when I was your , so now shut your eyes and get soood than the doctor's stuff”
Rayner was very glad when the doctor ca observed that Jack was going on as well as he expected, told hi Toreatly needed rest; but as he had expended part of his watch below, he could not have three hours' sleep
On co harder than ever, though the frigate lay sheltered by the land
Alun reached his ear It was followed rapidly by others, and the sound appeared to coer on the other side of Portland,” observed the second lieutenant, as the officer of the watch ”Rayner, go and tell the captain He desired to be called if anything happened”
Captain Martin, who had only thrown himself down on his bed in his clothes, was on his feet in aa onist,” he observed ”If the gale caught her unprepared, her masts probably went by the board, and, unable to help herself, she is driving in here Get a couple of boats ready with some coils of rope, and spars, and rockets, and we'll try and save the lives of the poor fellows”
Rayner was surprised to hear this, supposing that the captain intended to pull out to sea, whereas he had resolved to go overland to the part of the coast which probably the shi+p in distress was approaching
Although where the frigate lay was tolerably smooth water, yet, fro of the wind as it swept over the land, it was very evident that no boat could live when once froun-room officers, Rayner and another midshi+pman, and twenty men, landed at the nearest spot where the boats could put in, and proceeded overland in the direction froain they booht air Soleer and death Scarcely, however, had the party proceeded a quarter of a mile than they ceased In vain they were listened for It was too evident that the shi+p had struck the fatal rocks, and if so, there was not a moment to be lost, or too probably the whole of the hapless creould be lost
The western shore was reached at last As they approached the cliffs they saw a nuot to the bay and looked down over the foa ocean, they could see a dark object so shrieks and cries for help It was the hull of a large shi+p, hove on her beaone, the after-part already shattered and rent by the fierce seas which dashed furiously against her, threatening to sweep off theto the bulwarks and stanchions To form a communication with her was Captain Martin's first object As yet it was evident that no attempt of the sort had been er apparently to secure the casks, chests, and other things thrown on shore than to assist their perishi+ng fellow-creatures It was vain to shout and direct the people on the wreck to attach a line to a cask and let it float in towards the beach
The most stentorian voices could not ale noing On descending the cliffs, Captain Martin and his party found a narrow strip of beach, on which they could stand out of the power of the seas, which, in quick succession, ca in towards them He immediately ordered a couple of rockets to be let off, to show the strangers that there were those on shore ere ready to help thenal was fired in return, not even a lantern shown, but the crashi+ng, rending sounds which came froer withstand the furious assaults of the raging ocean Captain Martin inquired whether any of his creere sufficiently good swied to say that he would try, but he had never swum in a heavy sea, and felt that it would be madness to make the attempt
”I'll try it, sir,” cried Ben Twinch, the boatswain's mate, one of the most powerful men in the shi+p ”I'd like, howsomdever, to have a line round my waist Do you stand by, ly bits of tiive ”
Ben's offer was accepted While the coil of line was being got ready, a large spar, to which a couple ofin towards the beach, but it was still at some distance, and there was a fearful probability that before it touched the shore the reflux of the waterthem off to destruction
”Quick, lads, quick, and I'll try to get hold of one or both of the the rope round his body His example was followed by another man, who, in the saed in and seized the well-nigh drowning strangers, just as, utterly exhausted, they had let go their hold They were able, however, to speak, and Rayner discovered that they were French
By the captain's directions he inquired the nauns and three hundred and forty men,”
was the answer ”We had an action yesterday with an English frigate, which es, but truly she so knocked us about that ere caught by the gale our masts went over the side, and ere driven utterly helpless on this terrible coast”
Rayner did not tell the _Thisbe's_ ers, that they were their late antagonists He merely said, ”They are Frenchmen, lads; but I'm sure that will make no difference to any of us”
”I should think not, whether they're Mynheers or Mounseers,” cried Ben
”They're drowning, and want our help; so, whether enemies or friends, we'll try to haul as et hold of, and give them dry jackets, and a elcoed into the foaress was anxiously watched as he rose now on the top of a roaring sea, now concealed as he sank into the hollow to appear again on the side of another, all the ti ait support hiht in the gloom
After a considerable time of intense anxiety it was found that the line was taut Ben had, it was supposed, reached the forechains of the frigate Then the question rose, whether he would be able to make himself understood by the Frenchmen One of the men, however, who had been washed on shore said that he believed one or two people on board understood English; but it was doubtful whether they were a those who had already perished
Some more minutes passed, and then they felt the line shaken It was the signal for theth had the satisfaction of finding the end of a stout hawser, with a smaller line attached to it The haasthe object of the line, they hauled away at it until they saw a cradle co with a couple of boys in it The moment they were taken out the cradle was hauled back, and then a man appeared, and thus, one after another, about sixty of the French creere dragged on shore