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Page 14
The woman, with a rapid movement, held out a bundle of papers to
him.
"What are they?" Larry asked.
"The list of passengers! You reporters! I have heard of you in my
country, but they do not such things as this! Go to wrecks to meet
the passengers when they come ashore! You are very brave!"
"I think you were brave to come first across the waves," replied
Larry. "The rope might break."
"I had my baby," was the answer, as if that explained it all.
"Do you think your husband would let me telegraph these names to my
paper?" asked Larry.
"He gave them to me to bring ashore, in case--in case the ship did
not last," the purser's wife said, with a catch in her voice. "You
may use them, I say so. I will make it right."
This was just what Larry wanted. The hardest things to get in an
accident or a wreck are the names of the saved, or the dead and
injured. Chance had placed in Larry's hands just what he wanted.
He hurried on with the woman, who told him her name was Mrs.
Angelino. He did not question her further, as he felt she must be
suffering from the strain she had undergone. In a short time they
were safe at the station, and there Mrs. Needam provided warm and
dry garments for mother and child, and gave Mrs. Angelino hot
drinks.
"Ah, there is my reporter!" exclaimed the purser's wife, when she
was warm and comfortable, as she saw Larry busy scanning the list of
passengers. "He came quick to the wreck!"
"Can you lend me some paper?" Larry asked Mrs. Needam.
"What for?"
"I want to write an account of the rescue and copy these names. I
must hurry to the telegraph office. I left my paper in the
fisherman's hut."
"I'll get you some," said Captain Needam's wife, and soon Larry was
writing a short but vivid story of what had taken place, including a
description of the storm, and the saving of the only woman on board,
with her baby, by means of the breeches buoy. Then he copied the
list of names.
"There's something I almost forgot," said Larry when he had about
finished. "There's that passenger who came ashore on the life-raft.
I wonder who he was? I'll ask Mrs. Angelino."
But she did not know. She was not aware that any one had come ashore
on a raft, for, in the confusion of the breaking up of the ship in
the storm, she thought only of her husband, her baby and herself.
"I can find out later," Larry thought.
He gave the list back to Mrs. Angelino, and then, with a good
preliminary story of the wreck, having obtained many facts from the
purser's wife, Larry set out through the storm for the nearest
telegraph station.
"Don't you want some hot coffee before you go?" asked Mrs. Needam.
"I've got lots--ready for the poor souls that'll soon be here."
Larry did want some. He was conscious of a woeful lack of something
in his stomach, and the coffee braced him up in a way he very much
needed.
It was quite a distance from the life-saving station to the nearest
telegraph office, but Larry knew he must make it if he wanted an
account of the wreck to get to his paper in time for the edition
that day. So he set off for a tiresome trudge over the wet sand. As
he was leaving, several men, who had been brought ashore from the
ship, came to the station. From them Larry learned that part of the
ship was likely to last until all the passengers and crew could be
saved. He then resolved to telegraph the story of the saving of all,
knowing he could make corrections by an additional message later in
case, by some accident, any lives were lost.
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