"
"Yes," Frank shouted back, "if it were not for the Goodwins. They
lie right across ahead of us."
Ruthven said no more, and for another hour he and Frank rowed
their hardest. Then Handcock and Jones took the oars. Ruthven lay
down in the bottom of the boat and Frank steered. After rowing for
another hour Frank found that he could no longer keep the boat head
to wind. Indeed, he could not have done so for so long had he not
shipped the rudder and steered the boat with an oar, through a
notch cut in the stern for the purpose. Already the boat shipped
several heavy seas, and Ruthven was kept hard at work baling with
a tin can in which they had brought out bait.
"Ruthven, we must let her run. Put out the other oar, we must watch
our time. Row hard when I give the word."
The maneuver was safely accomplished, and in a minute the boat was
flying before the gale.
"Keep on rowing," Frank said, "but take it easily. We must try and
make for the tail of the sands. I can see the lightship."
Frank soon found that the wind was blowing too directly upon the
long line of sands to enable him to make the lightship. Already,
far ahead, a gray light seemed to gleam up, marking where the sea
was breaking over the dreaded shoal.
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