The night was dark, but not very cold, and Captain Cephas had
been to the store that morning in his boat.
Whenever he went to the store, and the weather permitted, he
rowed there in his boat rather than walk. At the bow of the
boat, which was now drawn up on the sand, the two men stood and
listened. Again came the cry from the sea.
"It's something ashore on the Turtle-back Shoal," said
Captain Cephas.
"Yes," said Captain Eli, "and it's some small craft, fer that
cry is down pretty nigh to the water."
"Yes," said Captain Cephas. "And there's only one man
aboard, or else they'd take turns a-hollerin'."
"He's a stranger," said Captain Eli, "or he wouldn't have
tried, even with a cat-boat, to get in over that shoal on ebb-
tide."
As they spoke they ran the boat out into the water and jumped
in, each with an oar. Then they pulled for the Turtle-back
Shoal.
Although these two captains were men of fifty or thereabout,
they were as strong and tough as any young fellows in the
village, and they pulled with steady strokes, and sent the heavy
boat skimming over the water, not in a straight line toward the
Turtle-back Shoal, but now a few points in the darkness this
way, and now a few points in the darkness that way, then with a
great curve to the south through the dark night, keeping always
near the middle of the only good channel out of the bay when the
tide was ebbing.
Now the cries from seaward had ceased, but the two captains
were not discouraged.
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