The Wreck of the South Pole and Other Strange Tales — page 223: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

216 ‘The Beacon Ship of Half Moon Bay. horizon. ‘The wind freshened and with it came tokens of a storm at sea. | Off a mile from the coast, where we could just see the top of her masts, was anchored the beacon ship, a goodly sized schooner, manned at that time by three persons, who nightly trimmed the lamps which no doubt kept many . sailors from going down to “Davy Jones’ locker.” My San Mateo friend said that they had been there for years and during that time had been the means of saving many lives. Before the tide turned four of our party had climbed to a shelf of the cliff, some twenty feet above the beach, and so occupied had we been in watching the waves lap up one after another of the rocks we had a few hours before been walking upon, that we did not notice that the tide had cut us off from our friends. ‘There we were, half way up the cliff, and a storm rising in front of us. | This bit of carelessness delayed our return home, and afterward I was glad of it. Gradually the storm increased. Instead of the long majestic billows which characterize the Pacific, the waves, aided by the tide, became terrible in their proportions. The sky grew dark with dense clouds; the waves rolled in with what seemed an angry dash; they lapped up the sand foot by foot; they reached the rocks beyond, beat upon them, broke with fury against the barrier and re- turned frothing to tell the others of their unfriendly greet- ing. In the midst of the storm a body was cast up by the Gomicbook (E(o)