For Treasure Bound | Page 4

were paying it rapidly over the side.
As I turned to address the master of the vessel, who, I noticed as I was
hauled up the side, was then standing at the break of the poop, issuing
instructions to his crew, I saw him in the act of descending the poop-
ladder, and I stepped towards him. At this moment the ship was lifted
up by a perfect mountain of a sea, and hove over on her beam-ends; all
hands of us were flung violently to leeward; and before apparently any
of us had time to recover our feet, another sea swept down upon us;
there was a terrific--an ear-splitting crash, a wild, agonised cry, and I
found myself clear of the wreck, struggling wildly for life, with the
body of the master within arm's length of me.
He was apparently dead, and floating face downwards; but I grasped
him by the hair, turned him on his back, and struck out for the beach.
Twice were we flung like corks upon the pebbles of the strand, and
twice dragged off into deep water again by the merciless undertow. The
first time I dug my fingers, knees, and the toes of my boots into the
pebbles, in the hope of bringing myself and my senseless charge to an
anchor; but I might as well have attempted to grasp the air. The whole
of that portion of the beach which was exposed to the action of the sea
was a vast moving mass, the shingle being alternately thrown up and
sucked back again in tons, as the water hurled itself high upon the
beach and then rushed back into the foaming abyss.
The second time we were thrown up with such violence that I was
stunned; but the third time the brave fellows on the beach, who had
been making the most frantic efforts to get at us, would take no denial.
They watched their chance, and as they saw us again drifting in, two,
with ropes round their waists, rushed into the sea, grasped us, one each,
firmly round the body; and, though they were lifted off their feet and
dragged away to seaward like feathers by the retiring breaker, never let
go their hold until we were hauled up high and dry, clear beyond the
reach of the heaviest wave.
The efforts made to restore me to consciousness were soon successful,

but my fellow-sufferer, the master of the vessel, appeared to be
seriously injured. It was nearly half an hour before the faintest signs of
returning animation were perceived; and when at length consciousness
returned, the poor fellow appeared to be suffering the most excruciating
agony.
As soon as I was once more able to look about me, I found that the
wave which had washed the master and me overboard, had broken the
wreck in two just abaft the mainmast, flinging the stern portion much
nearer the shore, whilst it had turned the other half fairly bottom up,
precipitating, of course, all the poor fellows, who were so busy paying
out the hawser, into the sea. The people on the beach watched eagerly
for their reappearance above water, but not one of them was ever seen
again. It afterwards transpired that there was not a swimmer amongst
the entire crew, which, all told, amounted to fifteen hands.
The intelligence of a wreck had attracted a large concourse of people to
the spot, notwithstanding the discomfort attendant on being abroad in
so violent a gale; and one gentleman had taken upon himself to
despatch omnibuses from the town, well supplied with blankets,
etcetera, for the relief and benefit of any poor sufferers who might
reach the shore alive. Into one of these vehicles the unfortunate master
of the ship was now placed with the utmost care, a couch being
extemporised for him in the bottom of the 'bus by piling together all the
blankets which had been sent. In spite, however, of the utmost care in
driving, the jolts were frequent, and sometimes rather heavy, and the
poor fellow's groans indicated such intensity of suffering, that by the
time we were half-way to town I decided I would take him to my own
house, whereby he would be spared nearly half an hour of anguish.
It fortunately happened that, just as I had come to this resolution, a
gentleman rode up, and learning who we had inside, volunteered his
services. I immediately accepted them, desiring him to ride back to the
town, and despatch to my house the ablest physician he could find.
When the 'bus drew up at our door, the doctor was there in readiness
for his patient, whom we lifted out, apparently in the last stage of
exhaustion, and carried carefully into the house and upstairs into my

own