282 SPORT INDEED 



shipwrecked vessel that he had agreed to stay by — all 

 alone — while a tug towed her into a haven of rest. 

 The wind was blowing a gale. The hawser being 

 drawn so tight as to have little or no " bight," he was 

 fearful that the strain might cause it to fray by rub- 

 bing on the sides of the " eye " through which it 

 passed, and so part it. While he was examining it 

 the iron plating of the eye snapped and crumbled like 

 an egg shell under the strain. One of the pieces 

 struck him on his leg below the knee, breaking it in 

 three places. A consultation between the injured 

 man and the captain resulted in the latter taking him 

 into Hyannis, Mass., where he was driven to the 

 station in time to take a train for New Bedford, the 

 nearest place, in those days, to obtain efficient surgical 

 aid. 



The railroad service at that time was primitive, the 

 time slow, and the track as rough to the crippled 

 wrecker as a corduroy road. The journey to the cars 

 lasted just eight hours, and during the whole of the 

 time he was forced to hold his knee tightly with his 

 hands. The doctor who set it complimented him on 

 his wonderful pluck, kept him in bed eight weeks and 

 then sent him home with — as he described it — the 

 " best bad leg " he had ever seen. In these days of 

 anaesthetics and improved railroad facilities such an 

 experience could hardly happen. 



Among the Cape's quaint customs I find the old 



