260 



THE SEA. 



lane, Ronayne ran again to the cove, and the dim spark expiring in the turf showed 

 him where he had left it. He scraped off the ash, and, the wind fanning it, again it burned 

 up brightly too brightly, for now it burned down to his frozen fingers ; but he only grasped 

 it the tighter, for did it not light him on his errand of mercy ? and if another life 

 might be saved at the expense of a few burns, would it not be great gain ? So on sped 

 he along the shore, searching into every cranny and cleft and crevice lighted by the 

 turf, and, burning and shouting between his labours, at length was rewarded by a faint cry 



THE " NORTHFLEET." 



as of a man in distress more a moan than a cry, and at a distance. Rapidly 

 carefully he had scanned the beach, and partially searched every gully and cleft, and 

 and again receiving to his cries a faint response, but always from far away. No doubt the 

 man was out on the rocks, to which he had been carried by a receding wave after tli 

 ship struck, and Ronayne knew that some further help must be procured before he could 

 reached. So he hastened back to the five men he had left in the lane. They then 

 proceeded to the farm-house a melancholy cortege carrying as best they could the helpless 

 between them. He then started off, wet and weary as he was, to the coastguard station 

 at Bonmahon, where he gave information of the wreck, and demanded assistance for 

 the poor fellow out on the rocks." The coastguard men lost no time in turning out with 

 the rocket apparatus ; but just as they were fixing it in position, Ronayne, who had been 





