Teetoncey (14 page)

Though the sand strips appeared to be slumbering for the night, entirely deserted, I knew there was movement on foot and mule and sand pony Surfmen of the lifesaving stations were plodding along in the cold dampness above the grasping white water, now and then looking out to sea. During and after a gale of wind were the perilous times when the ships loomed suddenly, riding helplessly in spindrift that whipped off the long crests of Atlantic Ocean rollers.

I hoped that no ship would wreck that night yet it was always an exciting time when they did.

Acclaimed author Theodore Taylor was born in North Carolina and began writing at the age of thirteen, covering high school sports for a local newspaper. Before turning to writing full time, he was, among other things, a prizefighter's manager, a merchant seaman, a movie publicist, and a documentary filmmaker. The author of many books for young people, he is known for fastpaced, exciting adventure novels, including the Edgar Allan Poe award winner
The Weirdo; Air Raid—Pearl Harbor!;
and the bestseller
The Cay,
which won eight major literary awards, among them the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. Mr. Taylor lives near the ocean in Laguna Beach, California.