Part 4 Summary

The men can see a tiny house on shore, amid the dunes, and comment that it is odd no one sees them. The men do not know it, but there is no life-saving station even close to where they are. Their hopes are not at the bottom of the ocean, while they imagine someone on shore must surely have seen them and is not coming for reasons of cowardice or incompetence.

The captain tells them they may as well head directly for the shore, because soon they will be too exhausted to swim, even if they do get close. The men keep their thoughts to themselves, but each wonder, if he is to be drowned, why has he come so close to shore. The men just cannot believe the sea will take them when they have come so close to shore.

Suddenly, they...