He was the man who had lent them the
boat. "I was up in the town looking after my wife, who is sick,
and clean forgot you till it was dark. Then I ran down and found
the boat hadn't returned, so I got the crew together and we came
out to look for you, though we had little hope of finding you. It
was lucky for you we did, and for the rest of them too, for so it
chanced that we were but half a mile away when the ship fired her
first gun, just as we had given you up and determined to go back;
so on we came straight here. Another ten minutes and we should have
been too late. We are making for Ramsgate now. We could never beat
back to Deal in this wind. I don't know as I ever saw it blow much
harder."
These sentences were not spoken consecutively, but were shouted out
in the intervals between gusts of wind. It took them two hours to
beat back to Ramsgate, a signal having been made as soon as they
left the wreck to inform the lifeboat there and at Broadstairs that
they need not put out, as the rescue had been already effected.
The lads were soon put to bed at the sailors' home, a man being
at once despatched on horseback to Deal, to inform those there of
the arrival of the lifeboat, and of the rescue of the four boys
who had been blown to sea.
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