"I CAST UP 147 



'What can 'ee 'spect,' growled the other man, 

 'when you'm drove to sea in foul weather?' 



But that he said in the excitement of the 

 moment, not meaning it. 



Midnight struck on the church clock. 



We came in house; snatched up something to 

 eat and drink from what remained on the supper- 

 table; made a couple of cups o' tay to warm us; 

 stripped off our wet clothes and put them to 

 dry; and, leaving the kitchen in a sufficient pickle, 

 went up-over to bed. 



Just as I was catching off to sleep, I heard 

 dimly a flump-flump on the stairs; then a knock, 

 and a hurried voice outside my door: *A't thee 

 asleep? Turn out! Quick! There's Waremen 

 cast ashore, an' they'm crying for help. 'Astn't 

 heard 'em? Crying for help, they be. Hurry 

 up ! Turn out ! ' 



We ran out and along the Front, keeping 

 together in the murk by the sound of each other's 

 footsteps. 



At the bottom of the beach, against the whitish 

 broken water of low tide, the blurr of a boat was 

 just discernible. She lay broadside on, canted 

 away from the sea, exactly as she had knocked 

 ashore. 'Who be it?' Jim called down. 



