Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/209

209

THE WARNING AND THE RESCUE.

time, again overwhelmed every thought and feeling so
that she begged in the most heart-rending tones,
"Godber, save him, save him ;" he hastened to execute
her wishes. Mander and Idalia walked home with the
poor woman who was so tortured with anxiety for her
husband, and whose strength, now that she had ob-
tained her object, was completely exhausted. Yet she
was unwilling to remain longer from her child. God-
ber, with the two sailors who had been his former ship-
mates, went down to the beach and got into the boat.
Fortunately, as it was to be used the next morning as
a lighter, it lay in a place where, at the first coming on
of the flood, it could be easily pushed off, and although
the fog had as yet broken away little, they soon found
the vessel they sought, one of the sailors having ob-
served where she cast anchor just before the low-ebb.
When their calls, which had been kept up from the
first sight of the vessel, remained unanswered, when
they had climbed upon the deck, and gone down into
the cabin, and still saw no soul ; there was no longer
any doubt that the unhappy persons who had been on
board, were wandering somewhere on the flats, or per-
haps had already become the prey of the rising sea.
Where should they seek them ? In what direction
should they turn the boat ? So questioning, Godber
stood on the deck, and gazed with the most searching
look, as if his eye could pierce the dense fog. He heard
the light dashing of the waves against the keel, with a
shudder, as if he were standing himself, a helpless vic-
tim, in the midst of the swelling tide. "Hark ! what
was that ?" cried the three men at once. There came
a short, shrill cry, as if from far, far away. Each one