“That boy in the door where there’s a light?  Why, that is Tony!  He’s up.  Tony, that you?” sang out Charlie.

“Yes!  You going down to the beach?” said Tony, standing in the lighted door-way of a low-roofed house.

“Yes.”

“I heard the bell and got up, and one of the neighbors came and told us it was a wreck, and Mr. Grimes said I might go if I could go with somebody.”

“Come along,” said Will.  “Tell him I will take care of you.”

Tony went eagerly back.  He prepared for the trip, and then came out to join Will and Charlie.

“Now, boys, take hold of my hand and let’s put,” said Will.

They accordingly “put.”

“Isn’t this good fun, Tony.”

“Yes, Charlie, splendid.”

It was such good fun that Charlie thought he was willing to be a sailor on board that wreck even.  He changed his mind, however, in a short time.  Beach Street led down to a road that was called “Back Road.”  This took as many turns as it pleased, and after a quarter of a mile struck the low, level marshes.  Traversing the marshes, the road led Will and his companions up to the yellow hammocks, at whose base the breakers were discharging their fury in a terrible bombardment of the land.  The road wound through the hummocks, and then the party stood upon the beach.  It was a cold, ugly atmosphere, pierced by the missiles of the storm, while the surf crashed on the sand in one long, fierce, unearthly roar.  People from the town were now gathering on the beach, some of them carrying lanterns that twinkled like stars knocked out of their places by the storm, fallen now to the level of the beach.

But where was the wreck?  No sign of it anywhere; only rain, surf, storm, blackness—­a wild medley.

“This is a sell!” said a man.

“Wish I was in bed agin,” exclaimed another.

“Let’s catch the feller that rang that church bell,” exclaimed a third, “and duck him in the surf.”

A fourth made a sensible suggestion:  “Let’s go down to the life-saving station, and they can probably tell us there.”

A quarter of a mile up the beach was a life-saving station, and a light could be seen winking from one of its windows.  Several, including Will and the boys, walked up the beach, past the crashing waves, and reaching the station, pushed open its door on the land-side of the building, and entered.  Charlie looked about him with eager curiosity, for it was the first time he had ever been in such a place.  The building was of two stories.  The larger part of the lower story was taken up by a “boat-room” for various kinds of apparatus for reaching wrecks.  Charlie also saw the inside of a kitchen, and Will told him there was a room up stairs for the beds of the men at the station.  Charlie and Tony warmed themselves at the brisk fire in the store.  The man on duty there did not seem to know any thing about the disaster reported in town, but he talked with Will and Charlie about shipwrecks and storms and efforts at rescuing the wrecked.  After a while, Charlie said to Will, “Let’s go out and take a run along the beach, and see what’s going on.”