"Boys, if only we had a big bell or a steam whistle we could warn them poor fellows uv their peril." "It does seem hard to hear them blundering in and not be able to warn them," agreed Rob, "there should have been a lighthouse put on these shoals long ago." "Right yer are, boy, but the government is a slow movin' vessel and hard ter get under way." The boys had to laugh at this odd way of expressing the difficulty of getting new lights erected, but they knew as well almost as their companion the dangers of the ocean off this part of Long Island.
The whistle boomed out its wailing note again.
"Closer and closer," lamented the captain, "what's the matter with those lubbers?
Yer'd think they'd have a leadsman out." All at once the catastrophe for which they had been more or less prepared happened.

So quickly did it come that they had not time to speak.
The echoes of the last note of the siren had hardly died out when there came a loud explosion.
"Bang!" "A signal gun," roared the captain.
"They are calling for help ?" asked Rob.
"That's it, my boy.

They've struck, just as I thought they would." The distress gun sounded again.
"They're in a bad mess by the sound uv that," said the captain.
"It doesn't sound as if they were more than half a mile or so out," remarked Rob.
"I guess they're not.

Hark at that! They must be scared ter death." The gun was fired three times in rapid succession.
"They'll never hear that at Lone Hill life savin' station," grimly commented the captain, "and this fog's too thick fer them ter see her." "Do you imagine she is badly damaged, captain ?" asked Rob anxiously.
The idea of the stranded ship lost in the dense fog affected him strangely.
"Can't tell," the captain replied to his question, "may have stove a hole in herself and be sinking now." "Can't we do something to help them ?" asked Merritt eagerly.
"Only one thing we can do, boy, and that's full uv danger." "What is it ?" demanded Rob, ignoring the last part of the captain's speech.
"Get in ther boat and go out thar to 'em.

If they're sinkin' we can help 'em a whole lot, and--" The captain stopped short in amazement.
Rob, Merritt and Tubby had already started for the beach and Hiram, "the wireless scout", was close on their heels.
"Well, douse my toplights," exclaimed the captain, rising to his feet and lumbering after them, "Yer can't beat the Boy Scouts.".