midnight
`` Slip into your things as quick as you can ; we must be off to Fellness ; there 's a ship out there on the bar sands . '' `` I 'm a ` most ready , dad ; I heard mother call yer , and thought you 'd let me go along , '' replied Bob . Before the fisherman put on his sou ' - wester he took a black bottle from a recess , and after taking a hearty draught , he said , `` It 's lucky we 've got a drop to-night , '' as he handed it to his wife ; and with a parting word to her not to be afraid , he and Bob stepped out of the boat-house door , to meet the full fury of the blast , that threatened at first to carry them off their legs . The three miles ' walk to the little fishing village of Fellness was no easy task such a wild night as this , for although the road was inland , it was fully exposed to the sea , and between the wilder outbreaks of the wind and rain they could hear the guns of distress , and occasionally see a rocket piercing the midnight blackness of the sky , appealing for help for the drowning men . At the coastguard station , midway between the Point and the village , they found the men on the alert , and two volunteered to go with Coomber and help man the boat . Then the four plodded silently along the slushy road , for talking was next to impossible in such a gale , and it needed all the strength and energy they could muster to fight the wind and rain . They made their way to the beach as soon as they reached Fellness , and , as they expected , found most of the men gathered there , watching the distressed vessel .