They formed a line, each boy taking a girl by the arm, and struggled along the sh.o.r.e, keeping out of the woods as much as possible, and made slow but steady progress toward St. Pierre. It was during one of their frequent stops for breath that Sahwah, who had turned her head to look out over the wild water, suddenly screamed, "Look!"
"It"s the _Huronic_!" gasped Hinpoha, her eyes following Sahwah"s pointing finger.
Jammed up on a reef and completely at the mercy of the waves that battered against her side lay the great steamer that only a week before had swept so proudly through the channel. The beautiful white bird had its wings broken now, and drooping helplessly lay exposed to the full fury of the storm.
Hinpoha shrieked and covered her face with her hands. Horrified and fascinated, the others watched the waves dashing high over the tilting decks.
"Whe-e-e-w-w-w!" whistled the Captain.
"Can"t we do something," said Sahwah, "run and tell somebody? Oh, don"t stand here and see that boat go to pieces!"
"What can we do?" asked Hinpoha.
Before anybody could answer her question a brilliant light suddenly flared up a short distance ahead of them on the sh.o.r.e. "What"s that?"
asked Hinpoha in amazement.
"Beach patrol," explained the Captain. "That"s the signal that he has sighted the ship. Now he"ll run back to the life saving station that"s about a mile beyond here opposite the mouth of the channel and tell them where the wreck is and they"ll come and take the people off the ship.
See him going there, along the sh.o.r.e?"
In the gray darkness which followed the flash of light they could just barely make out the figure of a man running.
"I don"t see how he ever got that torch lit in this wind," said Hinpoha.
"That wasn"t an ordinary torch," explained the Captain, eager to display his knowledge of life-saving methods. "That"s what they call a Coston signal. It"s a patent torch that flares up when you strike the cap against something hard. The life-saving crew back in the station see it and get the apparatus ready and the people on the ship see it and know they have been sighted and help is coming."
"Oh, I"m so glad," said Hinpoha in relieved tones. "Now the poor people on the boat won"t be so frightened if they know they are going to be saved. It must be fine to be a life saver!"
"Maybe I"ll be one when I grow up," said the Captain.
"Oh, how grand!" said Hinpoha admiringly. "We"ll be so proud----" Then came a fiercer gust of wind and drowned the remainder of her sentence in its shriek, and they plodded on in silence, covering their faces to shield them from the whirling sand. Only a little way farther they came upon the beach patrol sitting on the ground and rubbing his knee.
"What"s the matter?" they asked, pressing around.
"Hullo!" he exclaimed in astonishment, "what are you kids doing out on a night like this?"
"We"re taking a walk," replied Sahwah and then giggled nervously when she thought how funny that must sound. "What"s the matter?" she repeated.
"Tripped over a stone," replied the beach patrol, "and kinked my leg."
He stifled a groan as he spoke.
"Are you badly hurt?" asked Hinpoha anxiously.
The man rose to his feet and limped resolutely on his way toward the station, but his progress was very slow. "Of all times to go lame!" he exclaimed in bitter vexation. "There"s the _Huronic_ out there on the reef with two hundred pa.s.sengers on board and there"s not a minute to lose!"
"We"ll take the word to the station!" said the Captain promptly. "We can get there lots faster than you can."
"All right," said the beach patrol briefly. He wasted no words in this emergency when seconds were things of consequence, but made prompt use of the a.s.sistance which had apparently been sent from heaven in the nick of time. "Tell them she"s struck on the reef off Sister Point," he directed.
""On the reef off Sister Point,"" they all repeated, and started forward with as much speed as they could manage.
Then it seemed to them that the wind had shifted and was coming from the front. In spite of valiant efforts to keep on their feet they were blown against the rocks which strewed the sh.o.r.e, and bruised and battered mercilessly.
"I can"t go any farther," gasped Antha at last, sinking wearily down behind a huge stump.
"Neither can I," said Migwan, who knew when she had reached the limit of her strength and realized that it would be folly to attempt to keep on to the station. Hinpoha had been panting in distress for some time, but had kept on gamely. But now she agreed with Migwan.
"All you girls get around behind that cliff," shouted the Captain at the top of his voice so as to make them hear, "and stay there until you"re rested. We"ll go on to the station."
Katherine and Sahwah stubbornly refused to be left; the other girls sought the shelter of the rock wall. Spurred on by the importance of their errand the nine struggled valiantly to make headway, but it was most discouraging work. At times it seemed as if they would be picked off their feet bodily and whirled into s.p.a.ce.
"Every time I go forward one step I blow back two," panted Sahwah as they drew up in the shelter of a bluff to take a moment"s breathing spell. "Aren"t we nearly there?"
"Only about a quarter of the distance," said the Captain gloomily.
"I"ve an idea," said Katherine suddenly.
"What is it?" asked Sahwah.
"We"re not getting to the station nearly as fast as we ought to," said Katherine, "and what"s more, there"s no hope of our going any faster on foot. I"ll ride Sandhelo in. He"s lots stronger than we are and can hold up against the wind where we can"t. It"s the only way we can get the word to the station in time. I didn"t think of riding him before, because the beach was so rocky I was afraid he would break his leg in the dark, but from here it seems to be smooth."
However much the boys thought it was their duty to carry the message to the station rather than the girls", they saw the worth of Katherine"s advice. They thought of the _Huronic_ lying out on the reef, pounded by the waves, and gave in to her at once without discussion.
All this time Katherine had been leading Sandhelo because she could hang on to him and keep her balance when the wind threatened to sweep her off her feet.
"Get ready for business, now, old chap," she said to him. "It"s time for your act." And, climbing on his back, she bent low over his neck and urged him forward with a cluck and a poke.
But Sandhelo chose this crisis to indulge in a return of his artistic temperament. Not an inch would he budge. "What shall I do?" wailed Katherine, when all her clucking and prodding had been in vain.
"Try riding him backward the way you did that day in the circus,"
screamed Sahwah.
Katherine whirled around on her stubborn mount and unexpectedly gave his tail a smart pull. With a snort of indignant surprise Sandhelo threw out his legs and started forward. Katherine caught her balance from the shock of starting, clamped her knees into his sides and hung on grimly to the blanket that had been strapped around his middle to keep the balsam boughs from p.r.i.c.king him.
Never was there a more grotesque ride for life. Instead of the beautiful heroine of fiction galloping on a n.o.ble steed here was a lanky girl riding backwards on a temperamental trick mule, hanging on as best she could, holding her breath as he pounded along in the darkness, expecting every moment that he would go down under her and praying fervently that he would not take it into his head to stop. But Sandhelo, under the impression that he was running away from something, kept on going from sheer fright, and as his early life had been spent waltzing on a revolving platform, he was able to keep a footing where any other steed would have broken his legs.
He would not even stop when they came to the life-saving station, and Katherine had to roll off as best she could, landing in the sand on her face.
"Whoa, there!" shouted half a dozen voices, and the surfmen who stood anxiously waiting for the return of the patrol caught his bridle and brought him to a standstill. Katherine panted out her message, and then refusing the invitation of the keeper to go inside the station, she followed the crew as they dragged the beach wagon to the point on the sh.o.r.e opposite the wreck.
From their various shelters along the way the rest of the Winnebagos came out and joined her, all eager to see the work of rescuing the stranded pa.s.sengers.
Hinpoha exclaimed in dismay when the small cannon was brought out and aimed at the ship. "They"re going to shoot the pa.s.sengers!" she cried, clutching the Captain by the arm.
"No, they aren"t," the Captain a.s.sured her hastily. "They"re going to shoot the line out to the ship. That"s the way they rig up the breeches-buoy. Now you watch. I"m going to see if I can help. That fellow with the twisted knee is out of it."
Without getting in the men"s way, the Captain watched his chance, and when it came time to man the whip that hauled the breeches-buoy out to the vessel he took a hand with the crew and pulled l.u.s.tily. After that he worked right along with the men and they were glad of his help, for the loss of the one surfman was holding them back. The other boys also did what they could to help, and the bringing to sh.o.r.e of the pa.s.sengers proceeded as rapidly as possible.
The memory of that night was ever after like a confused dream in the minds of the Winnebagos and Sandwiches; a nightmare of howling wind and dashing waves and inky darkness out of which came ever increasing numbers of people to throng the sh.o.r.e.