← catalogue

The Light Keepers: A Story of the United States Light-house Service

by James Otis · English · Gutenberg #41997 · 443,628 chars · public domain (US)

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Light Keepers: A Story of the United States Light-house Service
    
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.

Title: The Light Keepers: A Story of the United States Light-house Service

Author: James Otis


        
Release date: February 3, 2013 [eBook #41997]
                Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41997

Credits: Produced by David Edwards, David K. Park and the Online
        Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
        file was produced from images generously made available
        by The Internet Archive)


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIGHT KEEPERS: A STORY OF THE UNITED STATES LIGHT-HOUSE SERVICE ***

[Illustration: _Frontispiece._ "LOOK OUT FOR THIS 'ERE ROPE!"]




THE LIGHT KEEPERS

  A STORY OF THE UNITED STATES
  LIGHT-HOUSE SERVICE

BY

  JAMES OTIS
  AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE SAVERS," ETC.

[Illustration]

NEW YORK

  E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY
  31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET




COPYRIGHT, 1905

  BY
  E. P. DUTTON & CO.

Published, September, 1906

The Knickerbocker Press, New York




CONTENTS


   CHAPTER                                                    PAGE

     I. AN INVOLUNTARY VISITOR                                   1

    II. SIDNEY HARLOW                                           22

   III. PLANS FOR THE FUTURE                                    43

    IV. REPAIRING THE MOTOR BOAT                                65

     V. A CLOSE SHAVE                                           84

    VI. THE VOYAGE                                             104

   VII. A LESSON ON BUOYS                                      124

  VIII. THE SURPRISES                                          143

    IX. THE WRECK                                              164

     X. THE RESCUE                                             184

    XI. "SONNY'S" OUTFIT                                       204

   XII. MR. PETERS' MISHAP                                     224

  XIII. A DISABLED CREW                                        244

   XIV. NURSES AND LIGHT-KEEPERS                               264

    XV. STORM-BOUND                                            285

   XVI. AS IF FROM THE GRAVE                                   305

  XVII. THE INSPECTOR                                          325

        APPENDIX                                               341





ILLUSTRATIONS

                                                               PAGE
   "LOOK OUT FOR THIS 'ERE ROPE!"                  _FRONTISPIECE_

   "YOU LUBBERS!" CAPTAIN EPH SCREAMED                           92

   CAPE ELIZABETH                                               130

   MT. DESERT ROCK                                              170

   SADDLE BACK LIGHT                                            210

   BOON ISLAND                                                  250

   ISLE OF SHOALS                                               290

   MATINICUS                                                    330

   THE LIGHT KEEPERS.




CHAPTER I.

AN INVOLUNTARY VISITOR.


"If that 'ere ain't a boat, Cap'n Eph, I'll agree to eat this buff-skin,
an' wash it down with a pint of Uncle Sam's best oil," and Mr. Samuel
Peters, first assistant of Carys' Ledge light, flattened his nose
against the glass of the lantern as he peered out over the surging
waters which surrounded the light-house on every hand.

An odd-looking man was Mr. Peters (better known to his companions in the
service as "Sammy"), because of the fact that a bullet from the works of
Petersburg had ploughed a deep furrow across his left cheek, and carried
away a goodly portion of one ear. Thus indelibly branded as a veteran of
the Civil War, Mr. Peters had been glad to accept the position of first
assistant keeper of Carys' Ledge light, under the command of his old
comrade-in-arms, Captain Ephraim Downs.

"What good would it do you to eat the buff-skin, Sammy?" Captain Eph
asked in a mild tone, and without looking up from his task of polishing
the lenses. "It stands to reason that you'd have a fit of the dyspepsy
after doin' it, an' then I'd be called upon to report that we'd lost a
buff-skin, an' the best part of Number 12 from the medicine chest, for
I'd feel it my duty to doctor you up to the best of my ability an' the
printed instructions from the Board, even though you had been makin' a
fool of yourself."

"But why don't you look out an' see what's drivin' in here?" Mr. Peters
cried with just a shade of irritation in his voice. "What's the use of
bein' so pig-headed?"

"Now, Sammy, you know I ain't overly fond of bein' called pig-headed, an
yet you throw that word at me in season an' out of season," Captain
Downs said placidly as he polished the lenses carefully with the
buff-skin.

"Then take a squint to the east'ard, an' see what this 'ere muck of a
beastly fog is bringin' us," Mr. Peters insisted, this time in such an
imploring tone that the old keeper could do no less than comply with the
almost tearful request.

A single glance over the heaving waters, which had a grayish hue in the
early morning light, obscured as it was by the fog, and Captain Downs
forgot for the moment the "rules and regulations" by which he governed
the movements of himself and his companions.

"I do declare, Sammy, you're right!" he cried. "It does look like a
boat, for a fact, an' the surprisin' part of it is that you hit so near
the truth! It ain't often you can make out the difference betwixt a ship
an' a seal."

Mr. Peters was so engrossed with that which he saw as not to give any
heed to the ironical remark, for, under almost any other circumstances,
he would have resented it deeply.

"She's headin' this way, an' seems to be comin' right along, though I
can't make out anything in the shape of oars," the first assistant said
half to himself, and Captain Eph added as he went to the head of the
narrow stairway which led to the dwelling-rooms below:

"You ain't so young as you use' ter be, Sammy, an' can't depend on your
eyesight overly much." Then, raising his voice, he cried, "Hello, Uncle
Zenas! Bring up the glass will you?"

"I reckon that'll stir him up a bit," Mr. Peters said with a chuckle as
of satisfaction. "Uncle Zenas claims there isn't anything in the rules
an' regerlations that says he shall be interfered with while he's
cookin'."

"He'll find I've got a few rules an' regerlations of my own, which can't
be broken by any cook that ever beat an egg," Captain Eph said sharply,
and then he stepped back by the side of Mr. Peters in order to get
another glance at that object which had interfered with the early
morning duties of the light-house force.

A moment later it was possible for the two in the lantern to hear a dull
rumbling sound, something like imitation thunder, from below, and again
Mr. Peters chuckled until it really seemed as if he was choking.

"You've stirred Uncle Zenas up all right, Cap'n Eph," the first
assistant said, "an' I'm wonderin' whether you get them 'ere glasses
without goin' after 'em yourself."

"He'll fetch 'em or I'll hang him out of this 'ere lantern till he comes
somewhere nigh understandin' his duty aboard this light. I didn't fish
off the Banks year in an' year out for the best part of my life, to be
flouted by a whipper-snapper like Zenas Stubbs."

The rumbling sound from below increased in volume until, after
considerable difficulty, the head and shoulders of a very fat man were
literally forced through the aperture in the floor of the lantern, and
the upper portion of the "whipper-snapper" was revealed to view.

Uncle Zenas had admitted, in moments of strictest confidence, that he
weighed "nigh to three hundred pounds" and even Mr. Peters, who was
prone to contradict any statement which might be made in his hearing,
had no word against it. The cook _was_ large, with a face so red it
seemed as if the blood was about to burst through its veins, and, save
in the present case, was blessed with a mildness of disposition in
proportion to the size of his body.

"If I'm to fetch an' carry for this whole blessed crew, an' that at a
time when the fish-cakes are like to be burned to a cinder, I'll send in
a petition to the Board to have this 'ere stairway stretched till an
ordinary man can get through without scrapin' the skin all off his
shoulders," he said angrily, and Captain Eph replied, as he took the
glasses from the huge hand which was extended toward him:

"Better ask for a derrick, Uncle Zenas, an' then we can run you up on
the outside of the tower when we're needin' your delicate frame in the
lantern."

Uncle Zenas raised his hands above his head as if despairing of finding
words of sufficient intensity to do justice to the occasion, and then,
noting the fact that Captain Eph and Mr. Peters were gazing seaward
intently, he apparently forgot the peril of the fish-cakes as, after
considerable difficulty, he pulled his entire body through the narrow
opening which gave entrance to the lantern.

"What seems to be the matter?" he asked in a whisper, much as if
believing Captain Eph might be disturbed in his efforts to bring the
glasses to bear upon the tiny object which was being tossed wildly about
by the waves so far away.

For reply, Mr. Peters motioned him to look toward the east, and after
one glance he asked:

"What is it? Looks like a log, an' if grown men in Government employ
have taken to spendin' the time when they should be eatin', in huntin'
up drift stuff, it's time the inspector was notified that a full,
able-bodied crew is needed at Carys' Ledge light."

"I say it's a boat," Mr. Peters replied, "an' if I'm right, it stands to
reason that there may be somebody aboard of her. Now----"

"It _is_ a boat!" Captain Eph cried with no slight show of excitement,
"an' I'm allowin' that there's at least one man aboard."

"What can he be doin' out there to the east'ard?" Mr. Peters cried as he
took the glasses from the keeper's hand, and began adjusting them to his
own eyes.

"It's some fisherman, I reckon, what lost himself in the fog," Uncle
Zenas said, as if he no longer had any interest in the matter, and Mr.
Peters cried excitedly:

"That's no fisherman's boat, and it don't look as if it came from a
pleasure craft. There! Yes! I can make out somebody in the stern sheets;
but I don't see any oars, and how in the name of goodness has he kept
her headin' for this 'ere light? What do you allow it is, Cap'n Eph?"

"Much the same as you've made out, Sammy, an' it puzzles me to say why
she's abroad on a morning like this."

Just at that instant the odor of burning fish came up through the door
in the floor, and Uncle Zenas made all possible haste to descend, as the
keeper cried irritably:

"I'd like to know if you haven't studied the rules and regerlations
enough to find out that there mustn't be any smoke here in the lantern?
Why don't you stay down where you belong, instead of makin' more work
for Sammy an' me?"

"I'd have been willin' to staid there, an' it was what I wanted to do,"
Uncle Zenas replied breathlessly, as he tried unsuccessfully to lower
his huge body through the narrow aperture. "If the crew of this 'ere
light hadn't been so desperately lazy that they couldn't come down after
a little pair of glasses, we wouldn't be losin' the best mess of
fish-cakes that was ever put together on Carys' Ledge."

"Get down, can't you, an' not do so much talkin'?" the angry keeper
cried, pushing on the shoulders of the big cook until Uncle Zenas had
literally scraped his way through, and then the door was closed so
violently that several particles of dust arose, causing Captain Eph to
mutter:

"It does seem as if the crew of this 'ere light had gone out of their
heads this morning. What with smoke an' dust here in the lantern, I
reckon we're smashin' the rules an' regerlations all to flinders. What
do you make out, Sammy? What do you make out?"

"It's one of them motor boats, Cap'n Eph, an' she's no fisherman, that
much I'll go bail."

"Well, get to work cleaning' up, an' let _me_ find out what she is. It
seems as if a full grown man with a pair of good glasses ought'er know
all about her by this time."

"How do you expect me to wrastle with the rules an' regerlations, when
for all we know that 'ere boat may be comin' in with a load of
shipwrecked men?" Mr. Peters cried petulantly, as he gave the glasses
into the keeper's hand, and then stood gazing over the water as if
believing it was possible to see more plainly with the naked eye.

"It don't stand to reason that 'ere craft has got shipwrecked men
aboard, else we would see 'em, Sammy, an' I'm certain she's light, but
for a man in the stern-sheets. Here comes the fog agin, and whoever's
steerin' stands a mighty slim chance of strikin' Carys' Ledge, if it so
be he wants to make this 'ere bit of rock. I do hate to get so mixed up
before breakfast! Why couldn't the idjut have waited until long towards
noon, when we hadn't much of anything to do, before he hove in sight?"

"He'll heave out of sight mighty soon, for this 'ere smother is comin'
back faster than it went," Mr. Peters said half to himself, "an' I
reckon we know now all we ever shall about him."

"It must be he's makin' for the ledge, an' it stands to reason we
ought'er lend him a hand. There, that's the last we'll see of the craft
unless some mighty fine steerin' is done, an' since it's no use lookin'
out in the fog, Sammy, you'd better get to work on the lamp, while I go
down in case he's got brains enough to hold his course. Remember, that
'cordin' to the rules an' regerlations, the work of gettin' things
ship-shape must be begun immediately the light is put out, and we've
loafed too long already."

"I reckon it wouldn't hurt very much if we broke the regerlations a
little bit, when perhaps there are lives to be saved," Mr. Peters
muttered as the keeper, raising the trap-door carefully, descended the
narrow, winding staircase, but the first assistant made no attempt to
follow his superior officer, because of knowing full well, from past
experience, that any such disobedience of orders would be followed by a
reprimand not pleasant to receive.

Descending the first flight, the keeper came to the watch room, where
was a table, a chair, a stove, and a small lamp for the comfort and
convenience of those who were on duty during the night to make certain
the lamp in the lantern (meaning the floor above), burned steadily; and
here also was a square, upright piece of mechanism known as the driving
clock, which operated the flashing light.

Down another flight, and the keeper was in a third circular room, where
were two beds. Another flight brought him to his own apartment, and
below that the kitchen, over which Uncle Zenas presided as cook and
second assistant light keeper, where everything was wondrously neat and
clean, and where every inch of space was economized for the better
keeping of the food, cooking utensils, and such articles as are
ordinarily found in similar apartments on shore.

"Are the fish-cakes spiled?" Captain Eph asked as he opened the door
leading outside the tower to a ladder of iron, which was fastened
directly to the masonry of the building.

"Gone to a cinder," the cook replied in a tone of sorrow, "an' I allow
they was the best I ever put together. What about the boat?"

"That's what I can't tell, Uncle Zenas. This 'ere fog has shut in worse
than ever, an' the chances are we'll never see her agin."

"How did she happen to be out there? Some fisherman, eh?"

"No; me an' Sammy are both agreed that it's a motor boat, an' she looked
to me like such a craft as would be carried by some big sailing vessel."

"But what is she doin' out there?"

"Now, look here, Uncle Zenas, I don't know anything more about her than
you do. How can you expect I'm goin' to answer such a fool question as
that? All I can say is that, 'cordin' to the last sight I had of her, it
looked as if she was headin' for this 'ere ledge, an' all the rest is a
puzzle."

"Where are you goin' now?" the cook asked as he set about preparing more
fish-cakes.

"Down to the rocks. It's just possible I may be able to give the course
to whosoever is coming, an' Heaven knows he'll need it."

Then, as if to put an end to the conversation, Captain Eph closed the
door emphatically behind him, and descended the long, slender ladder
which led to the ledge below.

Not an inviting looking place in which to spend the greater portion of
one's life was Carys' Ledge; nothing but a mass of black, jagged rocks
rising out of the ocean a dozen miles or more from the mainland, and
in extent at low water, half a mile long, and considerably less than
that distance in width.

Save for two rows of timbers securely bolted to the rocks, and extending
from the base of the tower to the water's edge to form "ways," on which
a boat could be drawn up or launched, and a small hut not unlike the
dwelling of an Esquimau, made of cement, and large enough to shelter a
dory, there was nothing to be seen on the ledge of jagged rocks, over
which one could make his way only with considerable difficulty.

Captain Eph descended to the water's edge by following the timbers of
the boat-ways, taking due care as to where he stepped, for the footing
was far from secure anywhere save on the extreme top of the ledge, and,
making a trumpet with his hands, he shouted again and again, pausing now
and then in a listening attitude.

"It don't stand to reason he could hold his course long enough to hit
this 'ere ledge; but I reckon it's my duty as a Christian man an' a
light keeper to do what I can toward lendin' a hand. If he don't come
ashore here, the chances are mightily agin his strikin' land while the
breath is left in his body, for this 'ere smother is enough to mix up
anybody except an old shellback like me. Hello-o-o-o! Hello-o-o-o!"

Captain Eph actually started in surprise at hearing his hail answered,
and it seemed to him as if it was a child's voice which had come from
out the fog.

"I must be losin' my mind, to even imagine sich a thing!" he exclaimed
petulantly, dashing the moisture from his eyes as if by so doing it
might be possible to penetrate the dense veil of vapor which shut out
from view even the tower of the light. "It's a crazy trick for a grown
man to be whifflin' 'round here in this smother, without my thinkin' I
heard a boy. Hello-o-o-o!"

"Hello!" came out from the fog, and the old keeper really looked around
him in fear; but an instant later he had gathered his senses
sufficiently to cry:

"Uncle Zenas! Uncle Zenas!"

The outer door of the tower must have been opened at the first word, for
the light keeper heard his cook and second assistant ask petulantly:

"Now what's creepin' over you, Ephraim Downs? Do you allow that we can
afford to lose another mess of fish-balls this mornin', or have you
knocked off eatin' altogether?"

"Come down here, Uncle Zenas, an' bring the fish-balls with you, if you
can't come without 'em. I've got the boat in hail, an' it's a child who
answers me. We'll be needin' all hands, if he is to be brought ashore
alive. Sing out for Sammy!"

Then Captain Eph cried out once more for the guidance of the stranger,
and the reply was sufficient to convince him, if he had not already
decided the matter in his mind, that the helmsman of the boat was very
young.

"Are you on an island?"

"Wa'al, I wouldn't like to call it jest that," Captain Eph shouted,
"unless you're willin' to say a pile of rocks makes an island. This 'ere
is Carys' Ledge light. Now do you know where you are?"

"No better than I did before. Am I headin' right?"

"It sounds so; but this 'ere channel is mighty narrow, an' unless you
come in jest so, the chances are that your boat will be knocked to
pieces. Is she a motor craft?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then slow down till you can see the openin' in the rocks, an' once
you're headin' right, slap the power to her. Hello, you Sammy!"

"Ay, ay!" came from somewhere near the tower.

"Bring down that coil of rope, an' I'm thinkin' this 'ere lad'll need it
before he makes a landin'!"

At that moment the bow of the boat came into view amid the fog, and
Captain Eph shouted:

"Port! Port a bit, an' keep her in the channel! Hurry your stumps,
Sammy, for we're like to have a nasty mess here."

Mr. Peters did not arrive on the scene a second too soon, for at the
very instant he gained the keeper's side the little craft was thrown by
a heavy wave against the jagged rocks, and the splintering of wood told
that much damage had been done.

"Look out for this 'ere rope, an' have your wits about you!" Captain Eph
cried as, hurriedly taking the coil from Sammy's hands, he flung with
wonderful accuracy of aim the flakes across the shattered boat which was
being carried by the swell against the rocks the other side of the
narrow channel.

Now it was possible for the keeper and his assistant to see that the
sole occupant of the disabled craft was a small boy, apparently not more
than ten or twelve years of age, whose face told eloquently of the
mental and physical suffering he had endured.

The lad sprang forward to seize the rope; but at that instant the boat
was flung against the rocks, throwing him headlong, and but for the
first assistant keeper he must have been carried out of the little cove
by the receding waves.

Mr. Peters, understanding that if the boy's life was to be saved prompt
action was necessary, leaped into the boiling waters as he flung one arm
over the rope Captain Eph was holding.

The impetus of his leap was sufficient to send him through the water
faster than the partially destroyed boat was being carried, and,
grasping the stem with one hand and the rope with the other, he shouted:

"Haul in, Cap'n, the best you know how, for I can't hold on here overly
long!"

By this time Uncle Zenas had arrived at the scene, and, thanks to his
assistance, the little craft with her crew of one was pulled so far in
toward the rocks that the keeper and the cook had no difficulty in
running her bow on the ways, after which, as Mr. Peters scrambled out of
the water looking like a very large, half-drowned cat, the boy was taken
from the boat by Captain Eph.

"There, there, don't try to talk," the keeper said in a fatherly tone.
"Anybody with half an eye can see that you're clean done up, an' we'll
have plenty of time for your story, seein's we ain't likely to be
bothered with visitors till the inspector overhauls us."

It seemed as if all the lad's strength deserted him when there was no
longer any question as to his safety, for before Captain Eph ceased, the
muscles of the little body suddenly relaxed as if the wings of the death
angel had touched them.

"I vow an' declare if the poor little tot hasn't gone an' fainted away
like a woman," the old keeper said as he hurried toward the tower,
leaving to Uncle Zenas and Mr. Peters the task of pulling the shattered
boat up beyond reach of the tide. "I reckon he'd stuck it out as long as
he had strength, an' then went all to pieces."

When the two assistants entered the kitchen Captain Eph, having
undressed the lad, was rubbing him vigorously with warm towels, and Mr.
Peters cried in astonishment:

"Hello! What's goin' on now? Ain't afraid he's been drownded, are you,
Cap'n?"

"What with the fog an' the spray, I allow he has come pretty nigh that,
an' this 'ere treatment won't do him any harm. Besides, I don't know
what else to do, for there's nothin' in the rules an' regerlations to
tell what ought'er be done when folks have fainted dead away. Anyhow, he
seems to be pullin' 'round all right," the old man added as the lad
opened his eyes slowly.

In a twinkling Uncle Zenas had a cup of hot coffee to the little
fellow's mouth, and he was forced to drink, for the cook, in his
eagerness to take some part in the rescue, was literally pouring it down
his throat.

"Why don't you go an' fix up my bed so's we can put him in it, Sammy?
What good do you suppose it does to stand 'round here first on one foot
an' then on the other as if you was a brazen image?" Captain Eph
demanded fiercely of his first assistant, and the latter ran up the
spiral stairway, hurriedly, muttering something about the folly of
treating a case such as the one in hand, before first studying the
"rules and regerlations" to learn whether the Board had made any
provisions for similar emergencies.

Thanks to the ministrations of Captain Eph and Uncle Zenas, the
half-drowned and wholly numbed lad was partially restored to a normal
condition; but when he tried to speak the old keeper said sharply:

"There's no need of any tongue-waggin' yet a while. You're goin' inter
my bed, an' stay there till you begin to feel somethin' like yourself,
though I don't reckon it would do any harm if you told us how long you'd
been alone in the boat."

"Last night, and yesterday, and all the night before that," the lad said
with a sigh, and then, as his eyes filled with tears, Captain Eph
gathered him in his arms, saying to Uncle Zenas as he began to ascend
the staircase:

"I reckon it won't do any harm if you warm the blankets of my bed. This
poor little shaver's teeth are chatterin' yet; but after he's heated up
a bit, an' gets the sleep that's due him, he'll be a different lookin'
lad."

Mr. Peters had had much the same thought, for he now appeared in the
doorway with an armful of bed-clothes, and once more a "mess" of
fish-cakes was burned to a cinder as Uncle Zenas gave all his attention
to making the little stranger comfortable.

Ten minutes later the keeper and his first assistant descended to the
kitchen once more, and Captain Eph said in a whisper as he looked around
to see what the possibilities for breakfast might be:

"I vow an' declare if that poor little shaver's eyes didn't shut before
we'd got him well tucked up in bed. I don't understand how he stood the
rough usage, for he ain't much more'n a baby, an' if my suspicions are
right, he's been through what would pull down a tolerable strong man."

"What do you make of it?" Uncle Zenas asked while he hovered helplessly
around the stove, as if entirely at a loss to know what he could serve
for breakfast after spoiling so many prime fish-cakes.

"There's no need of our strainin' our brains over it, 'cause it won't be
a great while before he'll be able to tell the whole story," Captain Eph
replied as he poured for himself a cup of coffee.

"But what are you goin' to do with him?" Mr. Peters asked as he followed
the example of his superior officer.

"Do with him?" Captain Eph repeated as if in surprise. "What else can we
do but keep him here till the inspector comes, unless it so be, which
ain't likely, that a craft of some kind fetches up off the ledge?"

"What does rule 56 of the regerlations say?" Mr. Peters asked in a low
tone, as if afraid the involuntary visitor might overhear the words.
"Ain't it set down there that light keepers' dwellings shall not be used
as pilot stations, nor as boardin' or lodgin' houses?"

"Yes, I reckon that's part of what it says; but tacked on to that 'ere
rule is the words 'except by special authority,' an' I'm countin' on
gettin' that for our little shaver, if it so be somebody don't come
after him before then."

"But 'cordin' to the way I look at it, we're goin' clean agin the
regerlations when we make a boardin' or a lodgin' house out 'er this
'ere tower before gettin' the special authority," Mr. Peters said with
the air of one who has studied the subject thoroughly, and Captain Eph
turned upon his first assistant suddenly, still holding the cup of
coffee in his hand:

"I'm the keeper of this 'ere light, ain't I?"

"You are for a fact," Mr. Peters replied meekly.

"Well, that bein' the case, Sammy, after I've entered in the watch book
an account of his comin' here, an' set down the fact that I count on
keepin' the lad till somebody comes to claim him, I reckon it's nobody's
business but mine an' the United States Government's. He's here, an'
here he stays, unless the inspector says he must be turned adrift, in
which case I'll go with him."

Having thus settled the matter so far as he and the Government were
concerned, Captain Eph began to drink his coffee in as leisurely a
manner as if the lantern had already been cared for according to the
"rules an' regerlations."




CHAPTER II.

SIDNEY HARLOW.


For the first time since Ephraim Downs had been appointed keeper of
Carys' Ledge light, was the work in the lantern left undone until after
the crew had eaten breakfast, and also for the first time had the second
assistant failed of having an appetizing meal served in a proper manner.

It was, as Mr. Peters afterward said, as if the "rules an' regerlations
had been trampled in the mire," owing to the arrival of one small boy.

No sooner, however, had the poor apology for a breakfast been eaten than
Captain Eph suddenly awakened to a full realization of the situation,
and then he stormed at his assistants as if they were wholly at fault
because the regular routine had been broken in upon.

"It strikes me, Sammy," the keeper began when he had eaten the last
morsel of johnny-cake, and washed it down with the last mouthful of
coffee, "that instead of loafin' around this 'ere kitchen, you'd better
be in the lantern, else the inspector may get it into his head that the
good of the service demands that a new assistant keeper be appointed for
Carys' Ledge."

Mr. Peters looked in speechless astonishment, first at Captain Eph, and
then at Uncle Zenas, after which he held up both hands as if in token of
his bewilderment, and went slowly toward the stairway.

"An' I'd also like to know why this 'ere kitchen looks as if it was
ridin' out to a fair?" Captain Eph continued sharply. "There's got to be
a change 'round here mighty soon, or I'll court-martial this whole idle
crew."

Uncle Zenas' face flushed a deeper red, if indeed that could be
possible, as he said slowly:

"I've studied the rules an' regerlations ever since I was so
misfortunate as to be appointed second assistant keeper of this 'ere
light, an' so far I haven't found anything laid down agin answerin' the
keeper back when he tries to ride over a man. I allow you're in command
of the lantern, Captain Eph; but I've got some rights all to myself here
in the kitchen, an' there's goin' to be trouble if them as belong
up-stairs interfere while I'm 'tendin' to my reg'lar duties."

Then Uncle Zenas began to bustle around, as if every moment was precious
and he seemingly filled the little kitchen so full, as he moved his
ponderous body from one side to another, that there was really no room
for any other person in the little apartment.

Captain Eph did not venture to make any reply; but at the first
opportunity followed Mr. Peters up the stairway, tip-toeing through the
apartment where the lad lay asleep, and making no halt until gaining
that floor known as the lantern deck.

During five minutes or more the keeper and his assistant worked
industriously at those tasks which should have been performed earlier in
the day, and then Mr. Peters asked:

"How long do you allow that little chap will sleep, Cap'n Eph?" and the
keeper replied:

"It wouldn't surprise me a bit if he run his nap way over till to-morrow
mornin'. You see it ain't likely he got much sleep while he was alone in
the boat."

"An' it stands to reason that he didn't have a great deal to eat, for I
couldn't see anything on the craft that looked like provisions."

"I reckon there's no question but that he went hungry, Sammy."

"In which case he's needin' food as much as sleep," Mr. Peters said
thoughtfully, "an' I'm askin' if it ain't our duty to rouse him up
after a while, so's to shove somethin' inter his stomach."

"Well I declare, Sammy!" Captain Eph cried emphatically. "I never once
took heed to anythin' of that kind, an' yet it's only common sense. I'll
run down an' see what Uncle Zenas can fix up that'll hit his case."

"You look after the boy, an' I'll 'tend to things in the lantern," Mr.
Peters said as he wiped here and there with the buff-skin over imaginary
specks of dust on the lens.

"That 'ere Sammy breaks out in spots of good, sound sense every once in
a while," Uncle Zenas said when the keeper repeated to him the
conversation which had been held in the lantern. "It stands to reason
the little shaver needs somethin' in his stomach, an' I'll fix up a mess
right away. Perhaps we might pour a little broth down his throat without
disturbin' him very much."

"All right; see what you can do, an' I'll take a squint at his boat. It
ain't certain but that she can be patched up, an' he may need her
powerful bad before the inspector comes this way."

Having said this, Captain Eph, forgetting that, according to the
"regerlations," he should remain in the lantern until everything there
had been put to rights, descended the outside ladder leading to the
rocks below, and made his way to where the lad's boat had been left.

Here he found nothing contrary to the opinion he and his first assistant
had already formed--that she had been built as a tender to a large
vessel. A gasoline motor of 3 horse-power, with the appearance of having
been well cared for, was aft where the helmsman could attend to it while
holding the boat on her course, and lashed on either side inboard were
oars and spare fittings. Everything about the craft told that she had
lately been looked after by sailormen, and, having ascertained this
much, Captain Eph set about learning how seriously she had been damaged
by the rocks.

Both bows two or three feet abaft the stem were stove in; but the
injuries were not so serious that they could not be repaired by ordinary
workmen, and Captain Eph said to himself as he pulled the boat around on
the ways:

"I reckon Sammy an' I can put her in shape, pervidin' the weather holds
good; but if we get much of a gale she's bound to go, for it won't do to
take the Government boat out of the house in order to run her in, even
if she is worth four or five times as much as ours."

The keeper brought down from the tiny boat-house of cement, a rope,
which was attached to a small windlass or winch, and, making one end
fast to the bow of the disabled craft, hauled her up the incline until
she was in some slight degree sheltered by the little building. Then he
carefully covered the motor with a spare sail belonging to his own boat.

All this had required no small amount of time, and when he again entered
the kitchen, Mr. Peters, his labors in the lantern having been
performed, was moving in an aimless manner around the apartment,
evidently under the impression that he was assisting Uncle Zenas in
preparing a thin soup to be given the involuntary visitor.

"Well?" the keeper asked as he entered, and Mr. Peters replied:

"Uncle Zenas an' I believe he ought'er have some of this stuff inside of
him as soon as we can get it there. He'll sleep better with a full
stomach."

"What is it you've made?"

"I've thinned down one of them 'ere cans of soup you was so extravagant
as to buy when Sammy went ashore last," Uncle Zenas replied, "an' it
smells good enough to eat."

Captain Eph tasted the savory mixture critically and then said
thoughtfully:

"I reckon you're right about his needin' it, though it does seem too bad
to waken the little shaver while he's bottlin' up so much sleep. But
have your own way. How are you goin' to do the job?"

"You lift him up, an' I'll pour it down," Uncle Zenas replied in a tone
which showed that he had already settled the details in his own mind.
"The sooner we do it the better, 'cordin' to my way of thinkin', so
s'pose you lead the way."

There was an expression of deepest anxiety on Captain Eph's face as he
ascended the iron stairs, and on arriving at the floor above he stood
for a moment gazing at the childish face which could be seen amid the
mountain of bed-clothing, for in his desire to do all that might be
possible for the little fellow, Mr. Peters had piled upon the bed every
blanket and comfortable to be found in the tower.

"Better get right at it," Uncle Zenas said in a whisper, as he halted by
the bedside with the bowl of soup in his hands.

Captain Eph raised the boy so gently that his slumber was not disturbed;
but when Uncle Zenas attempted to pour the warm liquid down his throat,
he opened his eyes, crying in distress:

"What is it? What do you men want? Where am I?"

"You're safe and sound in Carys' Ledge light, Sonny, an' we've come up
to give you somethin' to eat," Captain Eph replied, as he pressed the
lad closely to him. "You've been havin' a hard time, an' are needin'
what we've brought. Drink it down like a little man, an' then you may go
to sleep agin."

Just for an instant the little fellow looked around wildly, and then, as
if reassured by the friendly pressure of Captain Eph's arms, began to
swallow the soup, slowly at first, as if from a sense of duty, and then
eagerly as hunger asserted itself.

"My! but that was good!" he exclaimed as Captain Eph laid him back upon
the pillow, and Uncle Zenas asked eagerly:

"Do you want some more? There's plenty in the kitchen, an' it'll do you
good."

"If I _could_ have a little more. It's _so_ good, and I didn't know I
was hungry till I got a taste of it," the little fellow said, rising to
a sitting posture, and as Uncle Zenas hurried down the stairway Captain
Eph whispered solicitously:

"Why not lay down agin, Sonny? You're mighty sleepy, an' it'll do you
good to get another nap."

"If you don't care, I'd rather keep awake till I've had more of the
soup. How nice it is to be here where it's warm and dry!"

"Bless your dear heart, you shall do as you want to in this 'ere light!"
Captain Eph cried. "Only don't forget that you've been havin' a hard
time, an' need sleep as much as food."

"There isn't much chance I'll forget anything of that kind while you're
all so good to me. When do you suppose my father will come to take me
away?"

"Who is your father, Sonny?" Mr. Peters asked.

"Captain Harlow, of the schooner _West Wind_--she's a five-master, and a
beauty. This is her first voyage, and I'm going all the way to Porto
Rico in her," the lad cried, and then suddenly remembering how long it
had been since he was on board the _West Wind_, he cried, turning toward
Captain Eph, "Do you suppose he can find me, now that I've come ashore,
sir?"

"If he don't it won't be any very great job to let him know where you
are, Sonny," the keeper replied emphatically. "It'll go hard if we can't
hail a fisherman, or a pilot boat, an' send a letter ashore to the
post-office, so you needn't worry about that part of it. But tell me how
you happened to be adrift in that motor boat."

"We went out to look at what seemed to be a lot of wreckage; it was so
calm that the _West Wind_ hardly moved through the water, and father
said I might go with Mr. Sawyer, because I know how to run the motor and
steer. Then, before we'd got to the wreckage, the fog shut in, and we
couldn't see the schooner. I believe I could have gone straight to her
at first, but after Mr. Sawyer fell over-board, I turned the boat around
so many times trying to pick him up, that I couldn't tell where the
_West Wind_ might be."

"Who was Mr. Sawyer?" Captain Eph asked.

"The second mate; he was a good friend of mine, and I wouldn't have been
allowed to go out to look at the wreckage if he hadn't coaxed father."

"How did a sailorman contrive to tumble over-board?" Mr. Peters asked
curiously, as if it seemed to him impossible such an accident could
occur.

"We ran down a spar, and he was leaning over the bow trying to make out
if it was a buoy that had gone adrift, or a portion of the wreckage we
had sighted, when a heavy sea came. It seemed to me as if the timber
struck Mr. Sawyer on the head, for over he went like a log, and although
I put the boat back and forth until it grew too dark to see, I couldn't
find him."

"Wasn't you frightened, Sonny?" Mr. Peters asked, and the lad replied
with a sigh:

"I was feeling too sorry for that, sir, and I thought certain the
schooner would pick me up, even if the fog was thick; but I did get
frightened when the night shut in, and the wind began to blow so that
the spray from the tops of the waves came aboard, soaking me with
water. My name is Sidney, if you please, sir."

"Then what did you do?" Captain Eph asked in a whisper.

"I just sat there and cried, sir, till I remembered what father has
often told me, that when a boy, or a man, for that matter, loses his
courage, he is a great deal worse off than if he kept up his spirits. I
had often run the motor while the _West Wind_ was in port, and I tried
to make out how much gasolene there was in the tank, for I knew
steerage-way was needed, else I couldn't keep her head up into the wind.
It was a terribly long while before day came again, and then the fog
covered everything so that I couldn't see very far in either direction.
Of course father hunted for me; but I knew he didn't have much chance of
finding me in that kind of weather."

"Wasn't you hungry?" Mr. Peters asked.

"Perhaps so, sir; but I was too much frightened and sorry to know it
until I got a taste of the soup."

"What did you do all the long day and second night?" and Captain Eph put
his arms around the lad as he asked the question.

"I sang a little, sir, and cried a good deal; but the most of the time I
prayed, and once when I fell asleep without knowing it, I thought I saw
my mother, who went to Heaven when I was only a little shaver."

At this point in the story Uncle Zenas appeared with a fresh supply of
soup, and after Sidney had drank it eagerly, Captain Eph said as he
forced the boy to lie down again:

"You're a brave little lad, Sidney, an' I have no doubt but that you
really saw your mother, for surely God would have let her go to her baby
boy when he was in such trouble. Now you must sleep again, an' while
you're growin' stronger we'll cook up a letter to send your father,
tellin' him where you are, for I reckon he's feelin' mighty bad about
this time."

Then, motioning for his assistants to follow, Captain Eph led the way to
the watch-room, and Uncle Zenas, who brought up the rear, closed each
door behind him lest the sound of their voices should prevent Sidney
from sleeping.

When the three men were in the apartment directly under the lantern they
stood in silence, gazing at each other, while one might have counted
twenty, and then Captain Eph said in a low tone:

"Wa'al, you've heard about all the story he can tell, an' now what do
you think?"

"I reckon it's the truth all right," Mr. Peters replied in what he
intended should be a jovial tone, and on the instant the keeper was
aroused to anger.

"I hope there ain't any one here so mean an' bad-minded as to question
any statement that little shaver has made! The truth! Of course it is,
every word, an'----"

"Now, look here, Cap'n Eph, there ain't any call for you to get up so
high on your ear," Mr. Peters interrupted. "I wasn't allowin' it could
be anything but the truth, an' only spoke that way because there didn't
seem to be much else to say. We've got him here, an' are bound to take
care of him, no matter what the rules an' regerlations say about
boardin' or lodgin' houses."

"Right you are," Uncle Zenas added, "an' I for one don't see as there is
any need of talk. We've got stuff enough to eat, an' jest so long as his
appetite sticks by him I'll give him a chance to find out what kind of a
cook I am, though it stands to reason I can't come anywhere near mixin'
up what he's been in the habit of gettin' on board one of them big
schooners."

"Now see here, Uncle Zenas," Captain Eph said sharply. "I've sat under
the droppin' of your cookin' quite a spell, an' so has Sammy. We've
never had any fault to find, an' as long as there's breath left in my
body I'll maintain that you can hold your own with the cook of any craft
that sails."

"Then what did we come up here to talk about?" Uncle Zenas asked as if
in perplexity.

"About that boy of our'n, for I reckon he belongs to us till his father
comes after him. I ain't wishin' harm to any man; but it wouldn't make
me feel very bad if nobody ever showed up to claim the little shaver,
'cause it makes this 'ere tower seem a good deal like home to have a
baby in it."

"Are you tryin' to fix up some plan so's it sha'n't be known he's here?"
Mr. Peters asked as if in astonishment, and Captain Eph roared angrily:

"See here, Sammy, there are times when you try a patient man like me, as
nobody has been tried since the days of Job. Of course I ain't tryin' to
keep any baby away from his own true an' lawful father, an' I called you
up here so's we could decide how to get word to the capt'n of the _West
Wind_ that his boy is here as safe an' snug as a bug in a rug."

"You seemed to allow a spell ago that we might hail a fisherman, an'
send a letter ashore," Mr. Peters said in perplexity.

"It don't seem jest the thing to wait a great while for some craft to
come within hail, for it stands to reason the poor man is jest about
crazy thinkin' the lad's knockin' around in that boat, starvin' to
death," and the keeper rubbed his chin vigorously, as if by so doing it
might be possible to more readily solve the problem which was before
them.

"It wouldn't be any fool of a trip from here to the mainland, at this
season of the year, in a dory," Uncle Zenas suggested, and Mr. Peters
cried as if he saw a way out of the difficulty.

"The first thing, whatever we agree on, is to write the letter, an'
after that's been done we'll have time enough to figger how it's to be
sent. I reckon it'll get there all right if you put on it the name of
the captain an' the schooner, to be found at Porto Rico, eh?"

"That's what's puzzlin' me a good bit," Captain Eph replied. "I ain't
sure but that there may be more than one post-office in Porto Rico. I
never was on the island, so don't know much about it."

"Why not send your letter to the light?" Uncle Zenas asked. "No matter
what kind of an island it is, there's bound to be a light on it."

"An' who's to tell me where or what it is?" the keeper cried petulantly.
"The place may only be buoyed out, or have nothin' more'n a beacon on
it."

"Wa'al, you've got the report of the Board in your room, an' all the
facts are certain to be put down in that, since we've adopted the place
so to speak," Mr. Peters suggested, and Captain Eph's face brightened
at once, as he cried:

"There are times, Sammy, when you do really seem to have quite a lot of
sense! Now any idjut ought'er thought of doin' that same thing; but I've
been so mixed up since daybreak that my brain seems to be off somewhere
on a strike. Wait a bit while I fetch the book."

"Sneak inter the room quiet-like, or you may wake the lad," Uncle Zenas
said warningly, and Captain Eph, who was already half-way through the
door in the floor, stopped to say in a tone of reproof:

"Any one would think, to hear you two old shell-backs talk, that I
never knew anything about babies, an' yet I've handled more of 'em than
you ever saw."

Then the keeper disappeared from view, and a full five minutes elapsed
before he reappeared, to explain his long absence by saying:

"I couldn't help stoppin' to look at the little rascal as he lays there
asleep. I declare he is handsome as a picter, an' twice as sweet."

"Did you get the report?" Mr. Peters asked impatiently.

"Of course I did. What else do you reckon I went after? Now we'll soon
know if there's a light on that island of Porto Rico."

Captain Eph had not pored over the pages of the report many minutes,
before he looked up at his mates in dismay, as he said:

"What do you think, boys? There's no less than fourteen lights on the
blessed place, an' it must be quite an island. Now we're up a tree for
sure!"

"If I was the keeper of this 'ere light I'd make an official report to
the inspector, of how the lad came to the ledge, an' ask the Government
to hunt up the father," Uncle Zenas said quietly. "I ain't so certain
that it's the Government's business to go 'round huntin' for stray
fathers; but it seems to me, seeing as how he landed on this 'ere ledge,
an' is stayin' here, the least them as are at Washington could do would
be to take one end of the job, if we're willin' to handle the other."

"You've hit the nail right on the head, Uncle Zenas!" and Captain Eph
gravely shook his second assistant by the hand. "I'll make a report, an'
from this on, till we decide upon somethin' better, all hands are to be
on the lookout for a craft that can be hailed."

"If you're goin' to settle down to a spell of writin', an' I'm allowin'
it won't be any small job to put the thing together ship-shape, I'll see
what can be done toward patchin' up the boy's boat," Mr. Peters said as
if making a suggestion. "If we get any good weather, an' the motor is
in fair shape, it mightn't be very much of a trip to run across."

"Get at it, Sammy, get at it. Seems to me I'm the only one in this 'ere
crew that don't rightly know what to do," and once more Captain Eph
crept softly to his own room in search of writing materials.

Half an hour later the keeper and his assistants were busily engaged on
their respective tasks. Captain Eph sat in the watch-room laboring over
his report; Uncle Zenas was cooking as if his very life depended upon
getting the largest amount of provisions prepared for eating in the
shortest possible space of time, and on the rocks Mr. Peters was
measuring and figuring on the shattered boat, confident that he could
soon put her in a seaworthy condition, provided he should be able to
find the proper material.

The cook was spearing doughnuts out of a kettle of hot fat with a
long-handled fork, bringing into play all his professional knowledge to
the end that each one should be of the proper color and degree of
crispness, when he was startled so badly that he actually squeaked, by
hearing a light footstep on the floor directly behind him.

"I'll be roasted if I didn't think you was a ghost!" he cried as,
turning quickly, he saw Sidney standing near the foot of the staircase.
"Why didn't you stay in bed, lad, since that's where you belong for the
next four an' twenty hours?"

"I guess I've slept long enough, for I wakened without being called, and
those doughnuts smelled so good I had to come after one. What a nice
kitchen this is!"

"It's a bit small for so big a cook," Uncle Zenas said with a laugh as
he held the pan half-filled with delicately browned cakes toward the
boy. "Help yourself to whatever you want so long as you're on Carys'
Ledge, for everything here that don't belong to the Government is the
same as yours."

"You have all been awfully kind to me, and if father could only know
where I am, it would be very nice to stay here a while, for I was never
in a light-house before."

"Where do you live when you're at home?" Uncle Zenas asked, as he
speared more doughnuts from the kettle of fat.

"I haven't got any home now. I did board with a very nice family in
Malden; but they moved out west, and father said I might stay on the
schooner until spring, when I'm to go somewhere to school. Is there
another room under this?" and Sidney tapped with his foot on a trap-door
directly in the center of the floor.

"Wa'al, I don't reckon you can call it a room, seein's it's our cellar,"
and Uncle Zenas raised the door that the lad might look beneath.

In the middle was what appeared to be a well, while around the sides of
the aperture were stores of all kinds, stacked up neatly with a view to
economy of space.

"Yes, that's our well," Uncle Zenas said in reply to Sidney's question.
"Least-ways it's a hole in the masonry which is filled every once in a
while by the water-boat from the harbor, which comes out here for that
purpose. Yonder is the oil, and our lamp eats lots of it. This 'ere is
what is known as a first order light, an' we use somewhere over eight
hundred gallons of oil in a year. The Light-House Board sends all our
supplies, for it stands to reason we can't run out to the shop whenever
we're needin' anythin' extra."

"But of course the Board can't tell just how much you will eat, and I
should think you might come short once in a while," Sidney said
thoughtfully as he gazed into the odd cellar, noting the variety of
stores therein.

"No, the Board don't know how much we might eat; but it takes it upon
itself to say how much we _shall_ eat, an' here's the list of what must
last one man a full year," Uncle Zenas said grimly as he opened a large
black book, the title of which was _Instructions to Light Keepers_.

Then Sidney read aloud the following table of annual allowance for each
keeper and assistant in the service:

"Beef ... 200 pounds. Potatoes, 4 bushels. Pork, 100 pounds. Onions, 1
bushel. Flour, 1 barrel. Sugar, 50 pounds. Rice, 25 pounds. Coffee, 24
pounds. Beans, 10 pecks. Vinegar, 4 gallons."

"But suppose you eat more than that?" Sidney asked laughingly, as he
came to an end of the list, and Uncle Zenas replied with a wink, which
was very comical because his cheeks were so fat:

"Here comes Cap'n Eph; you'll have to ask him about that, for he's the
head boss on this 'ere ledge."




CHAPTER III.

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE.


When Captain Ephraim entered the kitchen he held in his hand a sheet of
paper on which were several lines of written words, and before Sidney
could ask him any questions relative to the rations, as had been
suggested by Uncle Zenas, the keeper cried in a tone of triumph:

"Here's what I'm reckonin' will fill the bill all right, an' if Captain
Harlow don't get it in short order, the blame will be on the inspector.
See what you think of it, Uncle Zenas."

Then Captain Eph read the following, pausing now and then to look over
the top of his glasses that he might get some idea of how the statement
impressed the cook:

    "To the Inspector of Light-Houses,
         "District No. 1.

    "Honored Sir:

    "Me and my assistants believe it is our duty, though not so laid
    down in the rules and regulations, to make a special report because
    this morning a small boy came on to the ledge in a motor boat that
    got smashed up pretty considerable on the rocks while making a
    landing, said boy claiming to be the son of Captain Harlow of the
    five-masted schooner _West Wind_ bound for Porto Rico, and he
    wishing to let his father hear that he ain't drownded. Not knowing
    how to send word to the said father that the boy is on this ledge
    safe and sound, with us feeding him out of our rations so that the
    Government won't come short of provisions, I hereby, being of sound
    mind and disposition, make report to you that the said father ought
    to be hunted up by your honorable and respected Board, so that he
    may be able to know that his son ain't yet drownded.

    "Your respectfully obedient servant to command,
        "Ephraim Downs, Keeper of Carys' Ledge Light, and subscribed to by
        his assistants, Zenas Stubbs and Sammy Peters.

   "P.S. The said boy arove so unexpectedly jest about daylight,
   that I have further to report that the lantern of Carys' Ledge
   Light didn't get cleaned till nigh on to nine o'clock on this
   same morning.

       "Ephraim Downs, Keeper of Carys' Ledge Light."

"That's great, Cap'n Eph, jest great!" Uncle Zenas cried as the keeper
ceased reading and looked at him scrutinizingly. "There's no mistake but
what you've got a big head on you, for it would have taken me more'n a
week to get up a report like that, an' then I shouldn't have thought of
half the things you've said."

"I reckon it's up to the Board to find the _West Wind_ now, eh?" and
Captain Eph tried unsuccessfully to hide the expression of pride which
had come to his face with the words of praise from the cook.

"Of course it is, Cap'n Eph, an' I allow Sonny's father ought'er be here
mighty soon. Perhaps it would be a good idee if I did a bit more
cookin', for I'd be ashamed to have him find us without enough for
dinner in case you invited him to stop."

"There's no need of doin' very much cookin' before the letter has been
sent away," Sidney cried with a laugh, for now that the report was
written, it seemed to him much as if all his troubles had vanished.

"I reckon the lad is right, Uncle Zenas," the keeper said gravely,
"though it won't do any harm to have a little somethin' extra on hand,
in case he should get here before we expect him. I'll run out an' see
what Sammy thinks of the report, an' then we'll put our heads together
for the purpose of seein' how we can rig our little shaver up agin it
comes a cold spell, which we've a right to expect as soon as this fog
burns off."

"May I go with you, Captain?" Sidney asked eagerly.

"Of course you can, lad, though I'm allowin' that the best place for you
is in bed. Well I declare! Makin' this 'ere report has kind'er turned me
forgetful, an' I didn't realize that we counted on your sleepin' till
this time to-morrow. When did you come down-stairs?"

"Only a few moments ago. My eyes opened so wide that I couldn't close
them again, and it seemed better to have a look around, rather than stay
in bed like a baby."

"Perhaps you're right, Sonny; but 'cordin' to the way I looked at it,
you was needin' a deal of sleep. Come along, an' take care you don't
slip on the ladder."

Captain Eph led the way out through the door in the side of the tower,
moving slowly, and looking back over his shoulder at every step, until
Sidney cried cheerily:

"Don't get worried about me, Captain, I've been on the _West Wind_ long
enough to get up and down a ladder like this without falling."

When the two arrived at that depression in the rocks on which the
odd-looking boat-house had been built, they found Mr. Peters so deeply
engrossed in his task that not until the keeper spoke was he aware of
their approach, and then he said in a tone of triumph:

"I'll have that 'ere boat in shape before the end of the month! Only two
strakes of the hull have been stove badly, an' we've got jest what's
needed for new ones. The others want bracin', an' then they'll be as
good as ever."

"Never mind about the boat now, Sammy. I want you to hear what I'm goin'
to send to the inspector, so if there's anythin' you think needs
changin', it may be done. Of course we can't mail it until some craft
fetches to off the ledge; but there's no knowin' how soon that may
happen, an' we can't afford to miss the first chance."

"Got the report done as soon as this, Cap'n Eph?" Mr. Peters asked in
surprise.

"Of course I have, Sammy, else why would I be wantin' you to read it?"

"Does the boy know what's in it?"

"He was in the kitchen when I read it to Uncle Zenas."

"Well, go ahead. I reckon there ain't any such terrible great rush on
this 'ere boat, an' besides, as first assistant of the light, it's my
business to know what kind of a tale the keeper is sendin' to the
inspector," and Mr. Peters seated himself on the sharp edge of a rock in
token that he was prepared to listen; but Captain Eph said gravely
before beginning to read:

"We had better have this thing understood at the start, Sammy. When you
allowed that it was your business to hear whatever the keeper sent to
the inspector, it was all wrong, because if I want to make a report
privately, it ain't any concern of my assistants; but in this 'ere case
I have made you an' Uncle Zenas a part of the doc'ment, so to speak, an'
that's why I'm explainin' matters."

"I allow there's a good chance for an argument there, Cap'n Eph; but
seein's how we're kind'er pressed for time, we'll let the matter drop a
spell, an' take it up when there's nothin' else on hand, I mean about
your havin' the right to make a report without my knowin' what's in it.
Go ahead with the readin' an' then I'll explain how I count on fixin' up
Sonny's boat."

Sidney, having already heard the statement of facts, had no desire to
listen to a second reading; but took advantage of the opportunity to
ascertain the extent of the damage done to the boat in which he had
spent so many hours of suffering.

The motor was covered by the canvas which the keeper had thrown over it,
and after this was removed, the mechanism appeared to be in as good
condition as on that day when he and Mr. Sawyer set out from the _West
Wind_ to have a look at the wreckage.

Opening one of the lockers, he took therefrom a handful of cotton waste,
and while Captain Eph alternately read and explained to his first
assistant what he had written, Sidney cleaned the motor as the engineer
of the schooner had taught him.

He was still busily engaged in this task when, the report having been
read, Mr. Peters exclaimed in a tone of approval:

"Now I call that way up fine! If it don't stir the inspector a bit, he
ain't the man I've always took him to be. When do you allow the lad's
father ought to get here?"

"Wa'al, I can't say as to that, Sammy, seein's how we haven't had a
chance to send the letter ashore yet, and even if that was done, I
couldn't figure to any certainty on how long it would take to carry it
to Porto Rico. Of course I ought to know all about that, seein's I've
fished on the Banks, man and boy, for pretty nigh half my life; but yet
I don't. Somehow I'm afraid I ain't up in geography as I ought'er be.
Any way, the first part of the work is done, meanin' the makin' of the
report, and now it stands us in hand to keep a bright lookout for a
craft that can be hailed."

"When this 'ere fog lifts, I reckon we shall see fishermen enough," Mr.
Peters replied as if sending a message to the mainland was something
which could be readily done, and, apparently dismissing from his mind
the report and the possible consequences of making it, he called the
keeper's attention once more to the boat in which Sidney had come
ashore.

Then it was that he became for the first time aware of what the lad was
doing, and with that odd chuckle in which he sometimes indulged when it
seemed as if he was choking, Mr. Peters whispered hoarsely in the ear of
his superior officer:

"Will you look at that little shaver! I declare if he ain't takin' right
hold of that motor as if he had been born in her! He's no common lad,
Cap'n Eph, you mark my words!"

"You're right, Sammy, you're right, an' we'd good proof of that when he
come in, for it ain't many grown men who could have held the course in
the fog as he did. When it shut down so thick, I said to myself, says I,
'This is the last we shall see of the boat,' when lo and behold, in he
sails as if it was clear weather. Stavin' the timbers was what you might
call an accident, an' didn't come about through carelessness, so I allow
that he put her in here as neatly as any sailorman could. But what about
fixin' her up?"

Mr. Peters explained in detail how he believed the work might be
performed with the limited material at hand, and Sidney listened to the
conversation intently, for there was in his mind the belief that once
the boat had been repaired, he might set out to find his father without
awaiting the tardy movements of the letter.

Mr. Peters was no amateur at mending a boat, as both his mates were
ready to testify, and when he had come to the end of his plans, Captain
Eph said approvingly:

"You're right, Sammy, you're right, an' I don't see anything to hinder
you goin' ahead jest as you've begun. It ain't very likely we could turn
her to much account, even if she was in good condition; but we must have
her ship-shape before the lad's father arrives, so begin work on her as
soon as you please, and I'll lend a hand whenever it's needed."

Having thus received the sanction of his superior officer, Mr. Peters
lost no time in beginning the task, and Sidney was forced to cover the
motor with the canvas, because it would be impossible for both of them
to work on the craft at the same time.

"I reckon you'll be wantin' to take a look at Carys' Ledge before you
leave us?" Captain Eph said when the lad was at liberty. "An' seein's how
its nigh to low water, you may not have a better chance, although I'm
free to admit we haven't got much to show you. If you feel like crawlin'
'round over the rocks, come with me."

Sidney was not particularly eager to make a tour of the ledge, perhaps
because it was not very interesting from whatever point you might view
it; but it seemed as if he was in duty bound to accept the invitation,
and the two set off across the brown, jagged boulders, on which, before
the tower was built, so many good vessels had foundered.

When Captain Eph and the boy were at the extreme southern point of the
ledge, looking back at the tower, Sidney asked in a tone of wonderment:

"How did they build the light-house on these rocks?"

"Well, I'll allow it was a pretty tough job; but nothing to be compared
with what the Board has done in other places. Now I was reading, not a
great while ago, in one of the books the inspector sends us, about their
building a tower on a rock off the coast of Oregon called Tillamook.
Putting one up here wasn't a marker alongside the trouble they had with
that, because there wasn't many days in the summer when a full crew
couldn't work here."

"And was Tillamook Rock worse than this ledge, sir?" Sidney asked.

"Why bless your heart, lad, Carys' Ledge ain't to be compared with it,
'cording to what I've read. It's just one big stone, so to speak,
standin' high out of fifteen fathom of water, an' a full mile from the
mainland. As I remember, it's located twenty miles south of the mouth of
the Columbia River. It seems, 'cordin' to the printed story, that that
'ere rock was split in two, with a wide crack running east an' west, an'
the top of it was about a hundred feet above the level of the sea.
Nothin' larger than fifty foot square could be built on it, an' it was a
mighty ticklish job for even sailormen to get a footin' there, even in
the fairest of fair weather. Why, the foreman of the first crew that
went off was drownded when the natives thereabouts allowed that the sea
was calm. That put a damper, so to speak, on the work; but the Board was
bound to have a light there, an' when they get their minds set on a
thing, it's pretty sure to be brought about.

"If I remember rightly, it was sometime in October of 1879, when the
steam tender landed four men with drills, hammers, and such like, to say
nothing of provisions, fuel, a stove, an' some canvas for them to make a
shanty of. There those poor, wretched creeters hung to the rock like
starfish, not able to do much of anything more than keep themselves from
tumbling off into the water. It was three days before they got five
other men an' a small derrick on to that blessed rock, an' for near to
two weeks they had nothin' to shelter them from the rain and the spray
but that 'ere square of canvas they had carried out."

"I wonder it didn't blow away," Sidney said thoughtfully.

"Ay, so it would, lad, if their first work hadn't been to put ring-bolts
in the rock, an' lash it down to them."

"Didn't they do anything all those two weeks, except cling to the rock,
sir?"

"Oh, yes, they managed to chisel out a kind of a hole at one side where
they could bolt some timbers to the solid foundation, an' cover them
with canvas. That was enough to give 'em a place to crawl into when the
sea ran too high; but look you, lad; I ain't certain that I'm tellin'
this story straight, so supposin' we go back to the watch-room, an' I'll
give it to you set down in print, the same as I read it, then there
won't be any mistake."

It was not pleasant to be scrambling about on the ledge while the fog
was yet so dense as to be very nearly like rain, and Sidney was well
pleased to accede to the proposition.

When they were come to the watch-room Captain Eph gave to the lad the
book in which the remainder of the story of Tillamook Rock light could
be found, and Sidney read the following, as it had been written by Mr.
Johnson, chief clerk of the Light-House Board:

"After setting up the main derrick and cutting a pathway up the face of
the rock, they opened a bench around it by suspending the workmen on
staging supported by bolts let into the rock's crest. The bench once
formed, the reduction was pushed to the center. The outer surface of the
rock was easily removed with moderate charges of black powder, but the
nucleus was hard and firm, and giant powder was necessary to open the
mass, when large charges of black powder acted satisfactorily.

"The working party, in spite of their rude, uncomfortable quarters,
worked diligently through the winter with good results. But the work was
much delayed by spells of weather so bad that little could be done. The
coast was visited by a tornado in January, which caused the waves,
reflected from the rock, to be carried by the wind over its crest, so
that for many days continuously the receding floods poured over the
eastern slope, making work impossible.

"On one such day this cataract carried away the supply-house, and even
endangered the quarters of the working party. For more than two weeks at
this time it was impossible for the steam-tender which supplied their
wants to cross the bar at the mouth of the Columbia River to go to their
assistance; when, after sixteen days, communication was reopened, the
party was found to be safe, but much in want of fresh provisions. These
were supplied by an endless line running between the mast of the
supply-vessel and a ring-bolt driven into the top of the rock, in
water-tight casks suspended from a traveler by slings, which was made to
move along the line.

"In May the top of the rock was leveled and a foundation made about 88
feet above the sea, and, on the 31st, three masons, four derricks, a
small engine, and the appliances for laying the masonry, were landed.
The stone, a fine grained, compact basalt, quarried near Portland and
cut to dimensions by contract, was delivered at Astoria and shipped to
the rock on the tender. The first cargo was landed on June 17; on the
22nd the corner-stone was laid, and then the rest of the material was
shipped to the rock as the weather permitted.

"The light is forty-eight feet above the base of the tower and 136 feet
above sea-level. It was shown for the first time on February 1, 1881. If
it had been finished a month earlier it would possibly have saved the
English iron bark _Lupata_ of 1,039 tons burden, which was dashed to
pieces on the main shore, not a mile from the light-house, with a loss
of the vessel, its freight, and every one of the twenty persons on
board. The bark came so near the rock that the creaking of the blocks
and the voices of the officers giving orders were distinctly heard, but
the night was so dark that nothing could be seen except her lights. The
superintendent of construction had a bon-fire built on the rock as soon
as possible, but the vessel was probably lost before the signal could be
seen. It was on this night that the working party lost their
supply-house and came so near losing their quarters, if not their
lives."

"Of course I have seen a good many light-houses," Sidney said as he
finished reading that which has been set down; "but I never understood
before how much labor must be done, and how many dangers met before the
lamps can be in position to point out the way to sailors."

"There's a good deal to this business that those ashore don't give heed
to," Captain Eph replied. "After the lamps are ready for lightin' there
must be men hired to take care of 'em, an' if you'll look a bit further
back in that book, you'll see that the Board don't pick up anybody as
keeper who is loafin' around out of a job."

The old man turned the leaves until having found the matter to which he
referred, and then said as if announcing some important discovery:

"Jest read that 'ere, an' then you'll know more about the kind of men
who have charge of lights in this country than you ever did before," and
Sidney read aloud:

"The class of men from whom keepers are selected is so good that the
punishment of dismissal is infrequently inflicted. But it follows
swiftly in two cases. A keeper found intoxicated is not only summarily
dismissed the service, but he is instantly ejected from the station; and
a keeper who allows his light to go out is dismissed without regard to
his excuse or his previous good conduct.

"The Board considers it the duty of every light keeper to stand by his
light as long as the light-house stands, and that for him to desert it
when in danger is as cowardly as for a soldier to leave his guns on the
advance of an enemy.

"His failure to keep his light burning, especially in time of danger,
may cause the wreck of vessels looking for it, and result in the loss of
much property and many lives.

"Keepers are trained to consider the care of the light and the
light-house property their paramount duty, beyond any personal
consideration; and the _esprit de corps_ is such that instances have
happened where the keepers on duty have, as in the case of the first
light on Minot's Ledge, gone down with their light-house and died at
their post; others, where the keeper has saved his lens, letting his
family shift for themselves; and there are repeated instances where the
keeper has saved his light-house property and lost his own.

"An instance of heroism is that of the keepers of Sharp's Island
light-house, in Chesapeake Bay. It was lifted from its foundations,
thrown over on its side, and carried away by ice early in February,
1881. The keeper and his assistant clung to the fallen house, and,
although one of their boats remained uninjured, they were adrift in the
bay sixteen and a half hours without fire or food, always in imminent
danger, as the heavy floating ice often piled up against and threatened
to swamp the house. It grounded, however, on an island shortly after
midnight, at high tide, and was full of water.

"Being satisfied that it would not float off again, the two keepers went
ashore in their boat, and when the tide had fallen they returned, saved
and took to the shore the lens, its pedestal, the oil, and library, much
damaged by water, and even the empty oil-cans, and then reported the
facts through their inspector to the Board.

"Meantime the keepers of another light-house, fearing the ice, had
deserted their post, and gone on shore. The fact that no vessels could
have needed their lights while the ice remained unbroken, and that they
returned to their post when the danger had passed, did not avail them.
So soon as the fact of their desertion was determined they were
dismissed the service, and the two keepers who had spent those terrible
hours afloat in Sharp's Island light-house, and then saved its
apparatus, were highly complimented by a letter direct from the Board
itself, and then were appointed to the deserters' places.

"The appointment of light-house keepers is restricted to persons between
the ages of eighteen and fifty, who can read, write, and keep accounts,
are able to do the requisite manual labor, to pull and sail a boat, and
have enough mechanical ability to make the necessary minor repairs about
the premises, and keep them painted, whitewashed, and in order. After
three months of service, the appointee is examined by an inspector, who,
if he finds that he has the qualities needed at that especial station,
certifies that fact to the Light-House Board, when, upon its approval,
the full appointment is issued by the Treasury Department.

"Although but one grade of keeper is recognized by law, usage has
divided keepers into a number of grades, with different pay as well as
different duties, and with promotion running through the various grades.
At one light-house there may be but one keeper; at another, a principal
keeper and an assistant; and there is a station where there is a
principal keeper with four assistants, the fourth having the lowest
grade and the lowest pay, and the others having been appointed at that
grade, and promoted as merit was shown and vacancies occurred; or they
may have been transferred and promoted from another station.

"Although persons are appointed to the service and assigned to a given
station, they are frequently transferred from one station to another, as
the interest of the service may demand, and while it is usual to consult
a keeper's wishes in his assignments, there is nothing in the
regulations to prevent the transfer of a man appointed in Maine to a
station in Georgia; and occasionally keepers are, with their own
consent, transferred from one district to another at a great distance.
Young men who have seen some sea service are preferred as assistants at
the larger stations; and at stations requiring but one keeper, retired
sea captains or mates who have families are frequently selected.

"Keepers are forbidden to engage in any business which can interfere
with their presence at their stations, or with the proper and timely
performance of their light-house duties; but it is no unusual thing to
find a keeper working at his station as a shoemaker, tailor, or in some
similar capacity, and there are light keepers who fill a neighboring
pulpit, who hold commissions as justice of the peace, and there are
still others who do duty as school teachers without neglecting their
light-houses.

"The Board has done much to make keepers comfortable. They are furnished
with quarters for themselves, and in certain cases for their families,
and when so far distant from market as to make its carriage equal or
exceed its cost, with fuel and rations. Suitable boats are furnished
stations inaccessible by land; and at those stations on shore, distant
from markets, barns are built for their cattle and horses. Something
also has been done for the intellectual needs of the keepers and their
families by supplying them with libraries. These are arranged in cases
so constructed that they make rather a neat appearance when set upright
on a table, and they need only to be closed and locked to be ready for
transportation. They contain on an average about fifty volumes each. One
of these libraries is left at a station for some three months, when it
is exchanged and passed on to another station. This is usually done when
the inspector makes his quarterly inspection; so each of the stations to
which libraries are furnished sees some two hundred different books each
year."

"Now you can see that we keepers must have some backbone to us, else we
couldn't get the appointment, or, getting one, wouldn't hold it very
long," Captain Eph said in a tone of satisfaction when Sidney ceased
reading, and the lad, at a loss for reply to such a remark, asked:

"Are you all sailormen here?"

"Ay, lad, an' have all been soldiers--there's no need of tellin' you
that much in Sammy's case. I've been cap'n of a fisherman nigh to ten
years, an' my last cruise Uncle Zenas sailed with me as cook, while
Sammy gave an imitation of bein' mate. We went inter the army together,
an' have grown up amongst each other, so to speak, till we're jest like
three Siamese twins. You won't ever hear any yippin' or scoldin' from
us, for----"

"Ahoy there!" came in angry tones from the kitchen. "Are you goin' to
let a good dinner go to waste jest because you're too lazy to come down
an' eat it? I don't count on keepin' the table set a great while longer,
for I want things kind'er ship-shape in case Sonny's father should tumble
in on us unexpected-like!"

"That's Uncle Zenas," Captain Eph said in a whisper. "You might think,
to hear him howl, that he'd lost his temper; but bless you, lad, he's as
mild as a suckin' dove."

"I suppose we ought to go down as soon as we can," Sidney suggested
timidly, "for even if he is mild, it sounds as if he was growing angry
every minute."

Uncle Zenas was shouting to Mr. Peters, speaking more sharply than he
had to the keeper, and Captain Eph said with a feeble attempt at a
smile:

"I reckon we'll mosey along, lad, jest to keep him from worryin'," and
the cook's superior officer made all haste to gain the kitchen, Sidney
following close at his heels.




CHAPTER IV.

REPAIRING THE MOTOR BOAT.


If Uncle Zenas had really lost his temper because the keeper and first
assistant had not answered the summons to dinner as quickly as he
thought they should have done, there was no trace of anger on his fat,
placid face when Captain Eph and Sidney entered the kitchen.

Mr. Peters had moved so rapidly after the cook called, that he was
already at the table, apparently ready to make a vigorous attack on the
food before him; but waiting for Captain Eph to ask a blessing upon the
food, as was the regular custom.

As a rule the old keeper's words were few at such a time, but on this
day he prayed at considerable length that the lad who had so suddenly
come among them be kept from sin and bodily harm, and that the father's
mind be relieved speedily from the burden of grief which weighted it.

During the unusually long prayer Mr. Peters had been moving uneasily in
his chair, and no sooner was the last word spoken than he asked
abruptly:

"Have we got any gasolene among the stores, Captain Eph?"

"If Uncle Zenas hasn't wasted it there should be a couple of gallons
left over from the last lot I bought with our own money. It does seem
strange that the Board can't be brought around to the belief that it's
cheaper to use an oil stove in the summer, than be messin' with coal,
which is unhandy to get into the tower, an' bad stowin' in sich small
quarters as ours. Why did you ask, Sammy?"

"I was thinkin' that if we didn't speak some kind of a craft pretty
soon, an' I got the lad's boat into trim, he an' I might run over to
town. The way I look at it, we're bound to get that report into the
inspector's hands right away, else the _West Wind_ may have gone to
Porto Rico an' back before word can be sent to her captain."

"I ain't so certain but that might be a bit risky," Captain Eph said
thoughtfully. "If we could leave Sonny behind, where there's no chance
of his comin' to harm, it would be all right; but neither of us know how
to run the motor."

"If we picked a fine day, it ought'er be done without risk to anybody,
for I'm allowin' the craft could make the round trip in four hours, an'
give us time to run up to the post-office," Mr. Peters replied eagerly,
and it could readily be understood that he had already arranged the
details in his own mind.

"How long will it take you to put the boat in shape, Sammy?" Uncle Zenas
asked, after waiting in vain for some word from the keeper.

"If the weather holds as it is now, I can have her in prime condition
day after to-morrow. Think you could run her a dozen miles or more,
lad?" he asked of Sidney, and the latter replied without hesitation:

"Surely I could! The motor hasn't been hurt any, and it was working all
right when I came in here."

"Then this is the way I look at the sitewation, Captain Eph," the first
assistant began, waving his knife in the air as if to attract attention.
"This 'ere fog mull may hang on for a week or ten days, an' since I've
been on the ledge I've known the smother to last a full two weeks
without liftin' enough to show a man the end of his own nose. It stands
to reason we can't hail any craft that we ain't able to see."

"Are you crazy enough to drag that 'ere little shaver off in a boat
while the weather is like this?" Captain Eph asked sternly. "If we had a
fog-horn or even a bell, it would be a bit different; but as it is I
wouldn't care to make a try at it."

"Of course I'm not quite so wild as that. Allowin' that we don't hail
anything before the fog lifts, an' there ain't much chance we will.
Then say there's nothin' in sight when the smother blows off? Wouldn't
it be better to strike out for the post-office, instead of waitin' on
the chance of sightin' a fisherman?"

"I'm bound, as a truthful man, to say you've got the right of it,
Sammy," Captain Eph replied; "but I'm wonderin' whether we're warranted
in sendin' the lad on sich a voyage."

"If Mr. Peters went with me, sir, it doesn't seem as if there would be
any great danger," Sidney suggested, and after a long pause the keeper
announced his decision.

"Keep right at work on the boat, Sammy, an' if she's in good condition
when the fog lifts, we'll argue the matter a little; but I ain't willin'
to agree off hand that it shall be done."

The first assistant appeared to be satisfied with this questionable
promise. He at once began to explain in detail how he proposed to
perform the necessary labor on the motor boat, and where it would be
possible to get the needed materials.

Sidney listened intently until Mr. Peters had exhausted the subject, and
then he asked timidly of the keeper:

"Did you say, sir, that you hadn't any fog signal?"

"Ay, lad, them was my very words. You've been over pretty much the whole
of this 'ere ledge, an' I reckon you didn't see anything that looked
like one, eh?"

"No, sir; but when I came in here, before seeing the tower, I heard what
I thought was a fog signal, and it has been going ever since."

"True for you, my lad, but what you heard, an' are hearin' now, is the
whistlin' buoy, anchored off here a couple of miles to the east'ard, an'
I reckon you're enough of a sailor to know what sich things are."

"I've heard them often; but never knew how the noise could be got out of
a buoy which had no person to attend it."

"When you have the time there's nothin' to hinder your readin' what the
Board says about whistlin' buoys; but I won't promise that you'll be any
the wiser after doin' it, for in all these years I haven't been able to
get it through my head, though I've figgered out a gen'ral idee of how
she works. The top of the buoy is shaped a good deal like a pear, an'
measures about twelve feet across the widest part. Inside the upper
part, an' runnin' down into the sea to a depth of thirty-two feet, is an
iron pipe thirty-three inches across it. Right at the very top of the
pipe, an' showin' above the whole thing, is a 10-inch locomotive
whistle, connected with some little tubes, which the inspector says make
a piston-and cylinder movement, whatever that may be.

"Of course these 'ere buoys are anchored in deep water, an' it stands to
reason that they rise an' fall on the waves, consequently the water
inside the big pipe pumps up an' down, compressin' the air till it jest
nat'rally has to escape through the whistle, makin' the noise. The whole
thing was invented by a man named Courtenay, an' I'm bound to say he
must have had a big head on his shoulders to think out sich a
contrivance. It may be, lad, that you'll understand it better by readin'
from the report; but I can't tackle the big words, an' don't know a
piston or an apex from the Queen of Sheba, consequently it don't do me
any great amount of good to puzzle over 'em.

"The Government has got eighty-eight whistling buoys in position, an'
every blessed one of 'em cost nigh to eleven hundred dollars. Then there
are one hundred an' thirty-nine bell-buoys which cost three hundred
dollars apiece, an' five thousand one hundred an' eighty-three other
buoys costin' different prices, so you see, lad, that outside the
light-house part of the service, it takes a big pile of money to buy
buoys an' keep 'em in position."

"An' that's only one little end of the expense," Uncle Zenas added in a
tone of solemnity. "When you come to figger up the whole business it'll
be easy to see how much responsibility we of Carys' Ledge carry on our
shoulders, which reminds me that it's time you folks got up from the
table an' let me have a chance to put the kitchen to rights."

"And I'll help you to do it!" Sidney cried gleefully, for it pleased him
to have an opportunity of assisting those who had been so kind to him.

"You needn't raise a finger, lad," the cook replied quickly, and he
added with a glance at his comrades, "I must say, though, that this is
the first time in all the years I've served as second assistant of this
'ere light, that anybody has offered to lend a hand, no matter how much
work there was to be done."

Captain Eph peered through the window much as though it was in the
highest degree necessary he should gaze out upon the fog just at that
moment, and Mr. Peters scuttled down the ladder to his work of
boat-repairing, as if the moments had suddenly become very precious.

Despite Uncle Zenas' protests, Sidney did his full share toward putting
the kitchen to rights, and when that had been done he began to realize
that he needed yet more sleep.

"Gettin' sand in your eyes, eh?" Captain Eph asked with a laugh, as he
noted the expression on the boy's face. "Wa'al, I kind'er allowed you'd
find out before a great while that you hadn't staid in bed long enough,
an' now, seein's you'vre put in a tolerable hearty dinner, I'd recommend
that you turn in for the night."

"But it is only noon," Sidney protested feebly.

"It wouldn't make any difference if it was only sunrise, for you need a
heap more sleep than you've had, an' it'll do you a world of good to
snooze from now till mornin'. Stay in bed even if your eyes are wide
open, an' you'll feel the better for it to-morrow."

"Ain't it about time that you made up your mind where the lad is to
sleep?" Uncle Zenas asked, and Captain Eph replied as if astonished
because such a question had been asked:

"He's to have my bed, of course; where else should he sleep?"

"But what are you to do?"

"There are two beds for three of us, an' one is on watch all the time,
so there's no call for much figgerin'."

"A blanket on the floor will be enough for me," Sidney cried, distressed
at the idea of depriving the keeper of his bed; but Captain Eph said in
a tone of authority:

"You must leave me to run this 'ere light, lad, 'cordin' to my own
idees, seein's how the Government put me in charge, an' I say that
you're to use my room so long as you stay with us."

Then the keeper led the way up-stairs, and Sidney could do no less than
follow him. Ten minutes later the visitor was sleeping soundly, and
Uncle Eph was creeping softly down the iron ladder to insist that the
first assistant cease work on the boat temporarily, lest he disturb the
tired lad.

"I'll have to stop if you say so, Cap'n, for you're the boss here; but
it does seem as if I might keep putterin' 'round so long as I don't use
hammer or axe," Mr. Peters said pleadingly. "This 'ere work is mighty
important if we count on gettin' word to the lad's father."

"You mustn't take any chances of wakenin' him, Sammy," the keeper said
impressively. "I'm allowin' that the chief thing is to get him inter
shape, an' sleep is what he needs, so put up your tools an' come inter
the kitchen, where we'll have a friendly smoke."

Mr. Peters obeyed, because he did not really dare to do otherwise,
knowing from past experience that the keeper was jealous of his
authority, and soon the three were sitting in Uncle Zenas' quarters,
conversing in whispers lest Sidney's slumbers be disturbed, as they
smoked their pipes in peaceful content.

It was Uncle Zenas who first broke the silence by saying:

"I allow it'll be a couple of weeks at the best, before the lad can hear
from his father, even if you should send that 'ere report to the
inspector this very day."

"Yes, it'll be all of that," Captain Eph replied thoughtfully.

"An' at this season of the year we're likely to have a cold spell any
time," the cook continued, and Mr. Peters cried impatiently:

"We all know that, Uncle Zenas. If there's anything you want'er say, why
not come right out with it, instead of beatin' clean around the bush?"

"I was thinkin' of that little shaver up-stairs. He ain't rigged to stand
very much cold weather, an' he's so terribly small that he'd get lost in
one of our coats, yet he's got to have somethin' of the kind."

"I declare I'd never thought of that, Uncle Zenas, an' yet you're in the
right," Captain Eph exclaimed. "But what's to be done about it?"

"I was thinkin' if you'd let me have that uniform coat of your'n which
you've outgrowed, I'd cut it down to fit him," the cook replied
modestly, for it was well known that, as Mr. Peters often expressed it,
"he was a master hand with a needle."

"You can have anything I've got, Uncle Zenas, if it's to be used for
that lad. I don't understand why it is; but the little shaver has got
inter my heart mighty deep, even though he's only been here since
daylight," and the keeper gazed out into the fog as if he saw there a
picture of a "little shaver" who called him "father" many, many years
ago, but who now, with his mother, awaited the old man on the shores of
that golden river which neither pain, nor sorrow, nor sin can cross.

"S'posen you go after it. I can be rippin' the seams apart while we're
smokin'."

Captain Eph went softly up the ladder, tip-toeing his way across the
floor of the chamber so softly that those in the kitchen below failed to
detect the slightest sound, and when he returned he held in his hand a
very respectable looking uniform coat.

"But that's your second-best!" Uncle Zenas exclaimed.

"Yes, yes, don't you allow I've got sense enough to know it? The other
is worn so bad it wouldn't pay to make over, an', besides, I've been
thinkin' of gettin' a new one, so you'd better take this."

A certain moisture in the old keeper's eyes prevented the cook from
making any comment on what seemed like the sacrifice of a good garment,
as he set about ripping it apart, and once more Mr. Peters detailed his
plans for repairing the motor boat, insisting every now and then that
there was no reason why he should not be at work upon it, instead of
idling the time away.

When it was time for him to make ready the evening meal, Uncle Zenas
went to and fro softly, taking especial care that there should be no
clattering of dishes, and a quarter of an hour before sunset Captain Eph
and Mr. Peters crept like mice up the stairs to the lantern, without
disturbing Sidney's slumbers.

It was a rule which the keeper and his assistants had themselves made,
that Uncle Zenas should go on watch immediately after supper, to be
relieved by Mr. Peters at eleven o'clock, with Captain Eph to do duty
from three in the morning until sunrise; therefore as soon as the
evening meal had been eaten and the kitchen put to rights, the cook
ascended to the watch-room.

Mr. Peters went to bed immediately that he might be ready and fit for
duty at the regular time; but Captain Eph remained a full half hour in
his own room watching the sleeping lad, before he lay down on the cook's
bed.

It was yet an hour before sunrise next morning, and Captain Eph was
poring over the "rules and regulations" as he had done every night for
many years, when he heard a slight rustling of garments at the head of
the ladder, and, looking around in surprise, saw Sidney, who stood as
if asking permission to remain.

"What are you doin' out of bed at this time in the mornin', Sonny?"
Captain Eph asked in what he intended should be a sharp tone, and Sidney
replied:

"I have been wide awake for an hour, sir, and thought perhaps you would
be willing for me to sit here with you. I've slept since noon, and a
fellow can't stay in bed all the time, no matter how tired he may have
been."

"So you concluded to come on watch, eh?"

"Why couldn't I?" the lad cried excitedly. "Even though I don't know
anything about the light, I've surely got sense enough to call one of
the crew if anything went wrong."

"There's no question in my mind but that you could take the trick all
right; but I've got so in the habit of gettin' up at three o'clock in
the mornin' that I couldn't sleep after that time, no matter how hard I
might try. Sit ye down, lad, an' tell me what you think of Carys' Ledge
light."

"Of course I don't know anything about other light-houses, sir; but I'm
certain there isn't a nicer crew anywhere on the coast, than can be
found right here," and Sidney laid his hand on the old man's shoulder
with something very like a caress.

Captain Eph looked toward the trap-door as if to make certain neither of
his mates were astir, and then, lifting the little lad on his knee, he
rocked him to and fro as one would a baby, crooning a bit of an old sea
song, until Sidney almost believed the old sailor was crying.

Until day broke, dark and forbidding because of the fog which enveloped
the tower until it was impossible to get even a glimpse of the ocean,
Captain Eph held the lad on his knee while he spun the wildest and
weirdest of sea yarns, and when the time came to extinguish the lights,
Sidney detained the old keeper long enough to ask if he might be allowed
to stand watch with him while he remained on Carys' Ledge.

"Indeed you may, Sonny, if so be you don't come to believe that it's
more comfortable in bed, an' I'll show you how to care for the lens.
Sammy shall snooze as long as he likes this mornin', an' we two will put
the lantern in proper shape."

Nothing, except an opportunity to see his father, could have given
Sidney more pleasure than this permission, and eagerly did he follow
Captain Eph up the narrow ladder, wondering not a little why the old man
took with him the book of instructions to light-keepers.

"It lacks nigh to ten minutes of sunrise," Captain Eph said as he
consulted his watch after they were in the lantern, "an' if it so be
you're goin' to stand watch with me, it's time you knew somethin' about
the rules. Here's number 123: 'Lights must be lighted punctually at
sunset, and must be kept burning at full intensity until sunrise.' Do
you get it, Sonny?"

"I should be able to remember that much," Sidney replied with a laugh.

"Then here's rule 124: 'All preparations must be made early, that there
may be no delay in lighting.'"

"I can keep that in mind and not half try, Captain Eph."

"Number 125 is longer; but it ain't hard to catch the general idee of
it. 'When the light is extinguished in the morning the keeper must hang
the lantern curtains and immediately begin to put the apparatus in order
for relighting. While doing this the linen aprons provided for the
keeper's use must be worn, that the lens may not suffer from contact
with the wearing apparel. The illuminating apparatus must be carefully
covered before the cleaning is begun.' Now here's Sammy's apron for you,
an' this one is mine," Captain Eph said, as he took the articles in
question from a locker, and showed Sidney how to put one on. "These 'ere
are the lantern curtains which we'll hang up at sunrise."

It was quite like a game, Sidney thought, and he was in high glee by
the time Captain Eph was ready to read his rule 126.

"Here she is, an' there's a good bit of meanin' to it, lad. 'The lens
and the glass of the lantern must be cleaned daily and always kept in
the best possible condition. Before beginning to clean the lens it must
be brushed with the feather brush to remove all dust. It must then be
wiped with a soft linen cloth, and finally polished with buff-skin. If
there is oil or grease on any part, it must be taken off with a linen
cloth, moistened with spirits of wine, and then polished with a
buff-skin. Under no circumstances must a skin which has been wet or damp
be used, as this will scratch the lens.'"

"The Board seems to be mighty particular about how the work shall be
done," Sidney said with a laugh, and Captain Eph replied:

"If they wasn't we shouldn't have sich lights in this country as we have
got. I ain't claimin' that we're the only nation on the face of the
earth who knows how to light a coast; but I will say, an' I've heard the
same from masters of foreign vessels, that we do the thing up brown
regardless of expense. Listen to rule 127, an' than I reckon it'll be
time to turn off the light: 'To clean reflectors, first dust them and
then rub with a buff-skin, lightly dusted with rouge powder, kept in a
small double bag of muslin; then rub lightly with another skin, and
finally with a third, which should be passed over the reflector in a
light, quick manner with a circular motion. Leakage of gas from the pipe
of the stove used in the watch-room should be carefully guarded against,
as this gas will badly tarnish a reflector.' Now we'll turn off the
light, stop the clock, an' get to work," and Captain Eph suited the
motions to the words.

Sidney stood ready with the lantern curtains until the keeper should
show him how they ought to be hung, for he had come to believe there was
a rule for the most trifling labor, when an exclamation of surprise
caused him to turn toward the door in the floor, and he saw the head and
shoulders of Mr. Peters, who was surveying the scene with a comical
expression on his face.

"Have I lost my job?" he cried with a laugh, and Captain Eph replied
grimly:

"You've always been complainin' that you couldn't get sleep enough in
this 'ere light-house, Sammy, an' I thought now was a good time to give
you your fill."

"I only wish I'd knowed it, 'cause the bed was good enough for me till
breakfast time," Mr. Peters said ruefully, and Sidney asked:

"Must I give up your apron, sir?"

"Bless you, no, lad, we've got spare ones in the locker, an' I'll take
one of them, for I reckon Cap'n Eph will want me to do my share of the
work so long as I stay on the ledge."

Then the keepers set about cleaning the apparatus in good earnest, and
Sidney was able to lend a hand now and then with such effect that the
morning's task was completed before Uncle Zenas' voice could be heard
from below as he cried:

"Are you men never comin' down to breakfast? What's the use of slavin'
my head off, if you're goin' to hang 'round up there till everything
gets cold? It would try the temper of a saint to cook for a crew like
you!"

"Now, now, Uncle Zenas, there's no need of wastin' so much breath, for
we were all ready to come down before you spoke the first word, an' I'm
afraid you'll never know what the temper of a saint may be," Captain Eph
replied mildly as he led the way down the ladder, and when the three
were in the kitchen the cook asked:

"How many of you are goin' to work on the boat to-day?"

"That's Sammy's job, an' I reckon we'd better not interfere with him,
for he always works harder when he's alone."

"Then what's to hinder your gettin' a mess of fish for dinner? We've
eaten salt meat so long that I'm afraid of drownin' myself through
drinkin' so much water."

"You shall have all the fish you can cook, Uncle Zenas," Captain Eph
replied, and, turning to Sidney, he asked, "Would you like to go out for
a spell, Sonny? There ain't much sport to deep-sea fishin'; but it's a
change after a man has hung 'round this 'ere ledge in a fog-storm."

It is hardly necessary to state that the lad accepted the invitation
eagerly, and before he took his place at the table Uncle Zenas brought
out his own oil-skins for the lad to wear, saying as he did so:

"This 'ere fog is about the same as rain, an' if the fish bite well
Cap'n Eph is likely to stay a long spell, for it seems to me he
reg'larly loses his head as soon as he gets a cod-line in his hand."




CHAPTER V.

A CLOSE SHAVE.


Although Sidney had been on the ledge but little more than twenty-four
hours, and a goodly portion of this time had been spent in sleeping, he
was already beginning to feel that sense of imprisonment which comes to
those who, for the first time, are confined to any limited space, and
the idea of being afloat once more was very pleasing.

"Are you going out fishing with us, Mr. Peters?" he asked when the meal
was nearly at an end, and the first assistant replied promptly:

"Not a bit of it, lad. I reckon if one of this 'ere crew fools away a
forenoon, it's about as much nonsense as is allowed by the rules an'
regerlations. I'll keep to work on your boat, an' do my best to get her
inter shape before an easterly gale puts an end to the job."

"It doesn't seem like nonsense, sir, to go after fish when you need them
for food," Sidney suggested timidly, and Mr. Peters replied, with an
accusing glance at Captain Eph:

"If that was all you counted on, it might look different to a
hard-workin' man like me; but the keeper of this 'ere light never goes
fishin' till he's hankerin' for what he calls sport, an' the food part
of it is only an excuse for idlin'."

"Watch close when we get back with a good fare of cod, Sonny, an' you'll
see Sammy put himself outside of four or five pounds jest as quick as if
they'd been caught by right hard work that had no sport in it."

"Of course I'll eat the fish when they are caught," Mr. Peters exclaimed
indignantly. "Do you suppose I'm that wasteful to let fresh cod spoil? I
haven't got anything agin folks goin' fishin', only when you come to
thinkin' that as soon as a storm springs up we'll be shut off from
workin' on the motor boat, it seems a good deal like wastin' time, since
we ain't really dyin' for need of that kind of food."

"Well, well, Sammy," Captain Eph said soothingly, "I allow that as much
work will be done by you alone, as if all hands of us turned to and lent
a hand, for you'd be desperately sorry if Uncle Zenas or I insisted on
drivin' a single nail."

Then the keeper descended the ladder leading from the kitchen to the
rocks, and Sidney would have followed immediately, but that Uncle Zenas
insisted on dressing him in a suit of oil-skins before he went outside.

A comical appearance did the lad present when he was clad in oiled
garments which had been made for the cook. It was necessary to turn back
the sleeves of the coat until he had around his wrists huge rolls of the
stiff fabric, causing Mr. Peters to remark that in case they "needed
fenders for the boat it would only be necessary for Sonny to let his
arms hang over the rail." The legs of the trousers were treated in the
same manner as the sleeves, and when he was fully clad, the skirt of the
coat dragged on the ground, while the waistband of the trousers was
fastened under his arms.

"I don't know whether I could catch fish, even if I was properly dressed
for it," Sidney said with a laugh as Uncle Zenas folded the coat around
him, using a piece of rope as a belt; "but no matter how sharply they
bite, it wouldn't be possible for me to pull one in while I am rigged up
in this fashion."

"Better never catch a fish, than catch a cold," Uncle Zenas said
soothingly. "This 'ere fog will wet a man through almost as soon as
rain, an' you're likely to be out in the boat three or four hours, for
Captain Eph always counts on goin' to the shoal near the whistlin' buoy,
and that means a long pull from here."

By the time Sidney was ready for the voyage Captain Eph had launched the
light-house boat until she rested on the foot of the ways, with her
stern just touching the water, and when the lad came up the keeper
tossed him gently into the boat, jumping in after him as he shoved her
off into the little cove.

"Sit right here in the stern-sheets, for I allow you wouldn't cut any
very great figure at handlin' such oars as we use, seein's how they are
much too heavy an' too long for your short arms."

"Can't I steer, Captain Eph?"

"I don't reckon you'd do yourself very proud by tryin' anything of the
kind, Sonny. In this 'ere smother it's a case of goin' by ear, an' I'll
pull up to the sound of the whistle, so make yourself comfortable in the
stern-sheets. The line you see there I laid out for you, an' it wouldn't
be a bad idee, if you want to be at work on somethin', to overhaul it.
The bait is in this 'ere can amidships."

Then Captain Eph settled down to the oars, pulling with a long, steady
stroke that sent the light dory ahead at a smart rate of speed, and
Sidney, who had never been in such a craft before, was surprised to find
how buoyantly she rode the waves.

"Yes, a dory knocks a keel-boat all to pieces in a sea-way," Captain Eph
replied when the lad spoke of their craft. "Providin' you can keep her
head to the wind, she'll live through a gale that would swamp an
ordinary schooner."

Then the keeper began questioning the lad regarding his past, and before
they were come to the fishing grounds, Sidney had told all the story of
his short life.

"I reckon we'll anchor, for we're in the shoalest part of the water,"
Captain Eph said, as if it had been possible for him to see distinctly,
instead of being enveloped in dense fog as they were, and a moment
later, when the dory had come up on the cable, he announced that they
were directly over the shoal.

"I don't understand how you could find just this spot when it's
impossible to see anything," Sidney said wonderingly, and Captain Eph
replied in a tone of satisfaction:

"I reckon comin' out from the ledge has become what you might call
second nature with me, seein's how I've been knockin' about here so
long; but there ain't anything very astonishin' in findin' a shoal that
stands close by a buoy, for a man's ears ought to be as good as his
eyes. Howsomever, we're here, an' now it's our business to catch as many
fish as we can. I'll bait your hook, Sonny, an' you're to let it down
until you feel that the lead strikes bottom, then pull her up four or
five feet an' wait till you get a good, strong jerk. After that it's a
case of landin' your fish, or losin' it, cordin' to the amount of common
sense you bring into play."

In less than five minutes Sidney had caught his first fish, and as he
hauled it over the rail after considerable labor, during which Captain
Eph watched him keenly, but without giving any advice, he decided that
deep-sea fishing went ahead of any sport in which he had ever indulged.

"You're a born fisherman, an' no mistake, Sonny," Captain Eph said as he
took the fish from the hook, and put on fresh bait. "Uncle Zenas
couldn't have done any better, an' he kind'er prides himself on bein' a
master hand at handlin' a hook. You've taken the first fish, an' I'm
lookin' to see you come out high-line on this 'ere voyage."

After this, but little conversation was indulged in during the half hour
which followed. The fish bit well, and it seemed to Sidney that they had
taken all the light-house crew could eat in a month, when he saw Captain
Eph raise his head suddenly as he peered into the fog.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Don't you hear anythin,' Sonny?"

"If you mean that pounding, I've been hearing it quite a while, and it
sounds louder every minute."

"It's the paddle-wheel of a steamer, lad, an' what a craft of that kind
is doin' 'round here beats me. She's comin' straight for us, countin' to
leave the buoy to starboard, I reckon, an' if we only had my report
here, what a great chance this would be to send it ashore!"

Now that he knew the cause of the thud-thud-thud which came across the
waters, Sidney wondered why he had been so dull in recognizing it. He
had often heard similar sounds when on the deck of his father's vessel,
but then they were not so distinct or threatening as now, when he was
nearer the surface of the sea.

He had been hoping it might be possible for him to catch more fish than
did his companion, and he gave all his attention to the line once more,
until he noted the fact that an expression of anxiety had come over the
keeper's face.

"Is anything gone wrong, sir?" he asked with mild curiosity.

"I wish I knew, Sonny, an' that's a fact. I can't make out why a
side-wheel steamer should be comin' so near the ledge, an' then agin,
why don't she shift her course? It ain't as if they couldn't hear the
whistle."

Even then Sidney failed to understand that they might be in any danger,
until Captain Eph began shouting at the full strength of his lungs as he
hauled up the anchor hurriedly, and again the lad asked:

"Is there any danger, sir?"

"I can't make out why the idjuts don't shift their course! Unless they
take a turn at the wheel mighty soon, they'll not only run us down, but
stand a precious good show of pilin' up high an' dry on Carys' Ledge!
Sing out, Sonny, an' make all the noise you can!"

Sidney obeyed instantly, for now the churning noise sounded so near at
hand that he almost began to believe he could distinguish the bow of the
steamer amid the thick gray mist, and both he and Captain Eph screamed
at the full force of their lungs, the keeper shouting now and then:

"Port! Port your hel'um, or you'll be on the ledge!"

Nearer and nearer the noise came until it seemed as if the stranger was
directly upon them, and Captain Eph had thrown off his coat and boots
ready for the worst, when there was an answering toot from the steam
whistle.

"Port! Port, you lubbers! You're close afoul of Carys' Ledge!"

Another answer from the whistle, and the bow of the recklessly-steered
craft came from out the fog not thirty feet away, while Captain Eph
sprang to the oars, pulling the little dory for dear life out of the
track of the steamer.

He worked with a will, and as the huge hull passed, disappearing almost
immediately in the vapor, the dory was hardly more than ten yards from
the mighty paddles, which would, despite the fact that the course had
been shifted, have crushed the little boat into splinters, but for the
old keeper's exertions.

[Illustration: "YOU LUBBERS!" CAPTAIN EPH SCREAMED.]

"You lubbers!" Captain Eph screamed as he leaped to his feet and shook
his fist in the direction where the steamer had disappeared. "Get a scow
the next time you go out sailin', for you ain't fit to run anything that
goes by steam!"

It is not probable the words were heard by those on the wildly steered
craft; but the speaking of them seemed to do the old keeper a world of
good, although he was very nearly thrown over-board by the violent
tossing of the dory on the swell raised by the wheels.

"I've been knockin' about at sea, man an' boy, pretty much all my life,
except for the spell I was in the army, an' that's the closest shave I
ever had!" Captain Eph cried as he pulled in the oars to wipe the
perspiration from his face. "We jest squeaked out of it, an' that's
about all you can say, holdin' to the truth!"

"Did you make out what steamer it was?" Sidney asked, raising the
question not so much because he was eager for information, as to hide
the terror which he feared might be read on his face.

"If I had, I'd pull this 'ere dory all the way to the mainland for the
sake of reportin' 'em as a crew of lunatics what ought'er be locked
up before they drown themselves! It was some pleasure craft, manned by a
lot of idjuts who most likely think they are sailormen because of once
havin' sailed a toy boat in a wash-tub," and Captain Eph took up the
oars again. "I reckon we'll let that put an end to our fishin' for this
day."

Sidney was by no means sorry to go back to the ledge; he had begun to
realize what deadly dangers might lurk behind that dense, gray vapor,
and was eager to be in the comparative security of the light-house once
more.

Captain Eph did not cease scolding at the "imitation sailors," as he
called them, until the bow of the dory was run into the narrow channel
between the rocks, where Mr. Peters could be dimly seen at work on the
motor boat.

"Did you find out what steamer that was which went past here a little
while ago?" Mr. Peters asked without raising his head, and the old
keeper remained silent, as if he had cause for complaint against the
first assistant.

Then Captain Eph proceeded to haul the dory up into the cement
boat-house, by the aid of the windlass, Sidney assisting to the best of
his ability, and Mr. Peters repeated the question.

Not until the fish had been laid out on the rocks ready for cleaning,
and the boat properly cared for, did the keeper speak, and then he told
the whole story to his assistant, concluding by saying:

"The master of that 'ere craft ought'er lose his certificate, an' spend
the rest of his nat'ral life in jail, to prevent him from doin'
mischief. The idee of cruisin' 'round here without knowin' where this
light was!"

"Most like he got mixed up by the fog, an' was goin' it blind," Mr.
Peters suggested so calmly that Captain Eph really lost his temper, and
cried angrily:

"If you don't hold your tongue, Sammy, I shall begin to think you're
almost as big a fool as the cap'n of that 'ere steamer!" and having thus
apparently relieved his mind, the keeper marched stiffly toward the
tower.

"Chafin' under the collar, eh, lad?" Mr. Peters said with a smile, to
Sidney. "I allow he's had reason to get riled, an' it did him a whole
lot of good to blow off on me. Wa'al, I'm glad I gave him the chance,
for it didn't hurt a little bit, an' he'll feel a heap better."

Then Mr. Peters turned his attention once more to the work in hand, and
Sidney was doubtful as to whether he should follow the keeper, or remain
where he was, until Uncle Zenas came out of the tower, saying as he
approached the lad:

"That 'ere fool steamer has riled Cap'n Eph so bad that I don't reckon
there's any chance he'll raise his hand towards cleanin' these fish, an'
the whole brunt of the work falls on me, as it allers does. Come with
me, Sonny, if you've got nothin' better to do, an' I don't reckon you
have, 'cause there's precious little goin' on 'round here, 'cept when
the inspector comes."

"How often does he visit you?" Sidney asked, thinking it necessary to do
something toward starting a conversation.

"He makes a reg'lar inspection of every blessed thing four times a year,
an' sometimes the tender comes oftener to pay us off; but we can't
really count on that last."

"Don't you ever go to the mainland on a vacation?"

"Oh, bless you, yes, every once in a while. I was off three years ago
last July, an' the year before that Cap'n Eph went; but Sammy sticks
here pretty close. He allows that it makes a man flighty to go
gallivantin' 'round as much as I do, but I tell him he's so flighty
already that he couldn't well be any worse."

"Could you go oftener if you wanted to?"

"Bless you, lad, yes, so long as two were left behind to look after the
light; but 'cordin' to my idee we're away as much as is good for us."

"Don't you ever get lonesome, especially in the winter, when no one can
land on the ledge?" Sidney asked, and Uncle Zenas replied as if in
surprise.

"Why should we? Ain't three of us enough for company? When all hands get
to loafin' 'round the kitchen I think it's reg'larly crowded. The fact
of the matter is, Sonny, we don't really have time for anything of that
kind. What with keepin' the place cleaned 'cordin' to the rules an'
regerlations, an' doin' the odd chores, about all the time is so took up
we couldn't be lonesome if we wanted to; but we don't."

Uncle Zenas had been industriously cleaning the fish while talking, and
the task was nearly finished when, after a long time of silence, Sidney
asked timidly:

"Had you just as soon tell me why all the crew call me 'Sonny,' when my
right name is Sidney?"

"Wa'al, I can't say, 'cept that Cap'n Eph is allers talkin' 'bout his
little Sonny, what died ever so many years ago, an' when he gave the
name to you, it come kind'er nat'ral for Sammy an' me to use it."

Sidney dimly understood that Captain Eph had done him a great favor by
calling him Sonny, and from that moment, while he remained on Carys'
Ledge, he felt in a certain degree slighted when any other name was
bestowed upon him.

Uncle Zenas explained that only a few of the fish would be cooked at
once, while the remainder were to be put into pickle until the sun
shone, when, spread out on the rocks, they could be cured.

"Then they'll be somethin' worth talkin' about," the cook said as Sidney
helped him carry into the tower such of the morning's catch as were to
be served for dinner. "Folks ashore will eat most anything that looks
like a salt fish, an' think it's jest what it ought'er be, the poor,
ignorant things! I'll show you some with pork scraps that'll make your
eyes water, if you stay here long enough."

At this point Captain Eph came down from the upper portion of the tower
looking as calm and contented as before the experience on the shoal,
and, noting the change, Uncle Zenas asked as he set about frying the
fish:

"Feel better now?"

"Indeed I do," the keeper replied emphatically. "I've writ down in the
log all I know about the lubbers what came so near stavin' in our dory,
an' if the Board don't do somethin' toward stoppin' sich recklessness,
it'll be because they don't care anything 'bout Government property an'
them as are hired to look out for it."

"But how can anything be done when you don't know the name of the
steamer?" Uncle Zenas asked in perplexity, and Captain Eph replied
sharply:

"It ain't for me to show the Government how things should be done. I've
let the Board know how they came near to losin' a light keeper, an' it's
their business to put a stop to sich fool work as runnin' full speed
between the buoy an' the ledge. Wa'al, Sonny," and the keeper turned
toward Sidney, "what's your idee of deep-sea fishin'?"

"There's lots of fun in it; but I believe that I'd rather not go out
again while the fog is so thick."

"The fog ain't half so bad as imitation sailormen; but it isn't likely
we'll need to go again very soon, because Uncle Zenas has got all the
fish he can take care of for quite a spell. We'll have fresh cod for
dinner, corned cod for breakfast, an' so on till there's a chance for
boiled salt cod with plenty of pork."

When a lad is eager to be of assistance to those around him, there is
always ample opportunity, and during the remainder of this day Sidney
found something with which to occupy his time. More than once was he
able to render valuable service in the work of repairing the boat; Uncle
Zenas declared that the lad had "helped him out wonderfully," and
Captain Eph discovered that the visitor's penmanship was very much more
legible than his own, therefore the "report" to the Board relative to
the coming of a boat belonging to the schooner _West Wind_ was copied
neatly, with much advantage, so far as the general appearance of the
document was concerned.

At the supper table Mr. Peters announced that his task would be
completed by noon of the next day, and proposed that Sidney try the
motor to make certain it was in running order.

"Don't undertake to leave the cove, Sonny," Captain Eph said quickly,
"unless it so be that this 'ere fog mull lifts, in which case I'll go
with you."

"I'll undertake to run that boat to the mainland, fog or no fog!" Mr.
Peters cried. "Do you mean to say, Cap'n Eph, that you allow to wait for
clear weather before we take your report ashore?"

"If you can run the motor, Sammy, you're at liberty to make the trip any
time you please; but I won't allow Sonny to take chances," the keeper
said very decidedly.

"Perhaps you think I can't be trusted to steer for him even in fair
weather?" Mr. Peters cried impatiently.

"So far as runnin' a boat from here to the mainland, I'd trust you,
Sammy, in any weather, day or night, for there's nobody who could do it
better; but for all that, when Sonny runs the motor, I shall be at the
helm every time, for I ain't takin' any chances."

"Do you mean to say I can't go ashore with him?"

"Not a bit of it, Sammy. In fair weather there's no reason why both of
us shouldn't leave the light, so long as Uncle Zenas stays on duty; but
Sonny don't go away from this ledge without me, until his own father
comes after him, an' then all hands of us'll be sorry to part with the
little shaver."

Captain Eph spoke in a tone which told his comrades that he would not
listen to any argument, and Mr. Peters looked as if he was on the verge
of a fit of the sulks, when Uncle Zenas said placidly, probably with the
idea of restoring good humor:

"I think it would be a proper plan for both of you to go; by startin' in
the mornin' after the lantern is cleaned, you should be back by noon,
an' if two are ashore, we can get a lot of shoppin' done. There are a
good many things I'm needin' that the Board don't furnish."

Captain Eph suggested that a list be made of the articles needed, and
Sidney wrote as the others directed, until Mr. Peters forgot that he had
been displeased at the idea of Captain Eph's making one of the party,
and laid so many plans for the "outing" that a full week would not have
sufficed to carry them all into execution.

That night Sidney tried to persuade the keeper to sleep in his own room,
and let him use one of the beds on the upper floor; but Captain Eph was
so emphatic in his refusal that the lad could do no less than hold his
peace.

He did not sleep very soundly on this night, however, because of being
eager to go on watch with the keeper. It seemed as if he awakened every
ten minutes, and strained his ears to detect any sound which betokened
the changing of the watches, while twice he crept softly to the head of
the stairs to make certain Captain Eph was yet in bed.

It seemed to the lad like a piece of rare good luck that he chanced to
be awake when it was time for the keeper to go on duty, and then,
dressing hurriedly, he crept up to the watch-room, enjoying it hugely
when the old man started in surprise as his footstep sounded on the
floor.

"Didn't think I could waken, did you?" he cried gleefully, and Captain
Eph took him in his arms as he replied:

"I didn't allow you should, if I could help it, because there's no
reason for you to turn out so early."

"But I had rather; it makes it seem as if I was of some use here,
instead of being a loafer."

"Bless your soul, Sonny, you'd be of use if you didn't do more than let
us old shell-backs look at you," and Captain Eph seated himself in the
chair, rocking the lad as if he had been a baby. "You never can know how
much good it has done us to have you here. If it wasn't for the sore
heart I know your father has this minute, I'd thank God you got lost in
the fog, an' pray that you might never find your way off this 'ere ledge
so long as I lived."

"You're mighty good to me," Sidney said, at a loss for words.

"It's me who's gettin' all the good out of it," Captain Eph replied with
a vain attempt to speak in a careless tone. "Say, you don't mind if I
rock you here on my knee while there's nobody by to see us, do you,
Sonny? You put me in mind of a little shaver who spent a good many hours
in my lap an' it kind'er makes me feel better to put my arms around
you."

"Mind it, of course I don't, except that I'm glad to have you hold me,"
Sidney cried, guessing something of that which was in the old man's
heart, and laying his head on the keeper's shoulder.

The clock which regulated the flashing of the light ticked loudly; the
boom of the surf against the black reef sounded like distant thunder;
but Captain Eph heard nothing save the soft breathing of the lad after
he fell asleep, and saw nothing save the face of the "little shaver"
against which he pressed his lips from time to time, while his eyelids
glistened in the lamp-light as if they had been wet with dew.




CHAPTER VI.

THE VOYAGE.


Mr. Peters was not mistaken as to the time when he would finish the task
of repairing the motor boat, and at the dinner-table on the day after
Captain Eph and Sidney had had such a narrow escape from being run down
in the fog, he announced that his work was at an end.

"She's in as good a condition as I can ever put her, an' outside of a
reg'lar ship carpenter, I'd like to see the man who would do a neater
job. When she's had a coat of paint, it would puzzle a Quaker lawyer to
make out to tell that she'd ever been stove."

"There's one thing I like about our Sammy," Uncle Zenas said in a
confidential tone to Sidney. "He'll never be hung because of not blowin'
his own horn loud enough, an' that's really the fact."

"On this 'ere ledge a man has got to speak for himself, else there's
danger of forgettin' whether or no he's alive," Mr. Peters replied in a
placid tone. "It ain't often I get a chance for horn-blowin', owin' to
the noise you an' Cap'n Eph make about yourselves. What do you say to
havin' a try at the motor, Sonny?"

Sidney looked toward Captain Eph inquiringly, and the latter replied.

"I can't see as there's anything to hinder, pervidin' you don't run
outside the cove. All you want to know is whether it's in workin' order,
an' that shouldn't take many minutes. If it so be that we do run over to
the mainland, it's my opinion that the voyage can be begun within the
next twenty-four hours, for this 'ere fog storm is about at an end,
'cordin' to the looks of things."

Therefore it was that as soon as Sidney had eaten dinner he went to the
narrow opening in the rocks where the motor boat was moored at such a
distance from the foot of the ways that there could be no danger the
waves would dash her against the timbers.

Mr. Peters hauled the little craft in so that the lad could leap aboard
from the rocks, and while he examined the motor according to the
instructions of the _West Wind's_ engineer, Captain Eph and Uncle Zenas
came down on the reef as spectators.

It was not necessary to spend many minutes in order to learn if the
machinery was in working order. When Sidney applied the spark which
ignites the gas, the screw immediately began to revolve, and he had no
difficulty in sending her ahead or astern at will.

"I reckon there's no great need of your spendin' very much time over
that end of the business," the keeper said in a tone of satisfaction.
"You an' Sammy had better give the engine a thorough cleanin', an' when
that has been done I'll try to answer the questions you asked this
mornin' about the light, if you come up into the lantern."

Then Captain Eph went back to the tower, and when the two were busily
engaged obeying orders, Mr. Peters asked curiously:

"What did the cap'n mean, Sonny, about answerin' your questions?"

"I wanted to know about the lens," Sidney replied. "I can't understand
why it is any better to have all those glass rings around the light,
which make so much work for the cleaners, than it would be if it was one
solid globe."

"So Cap'n Eph thinks he can explain all that, does he?" Mr. Peters said
with a queer gurgle in his throat, much as if he were choking. "Wa'al,
all I can say is, if he does, it'll be a good deal more'n I've ever
heard of his doin' yet. He'll spin a lot of stuff 'bout bendin' the
rays, an' after he gets through you won't know quite as much as you did
before."

Because he did not understand the meaning of Mr. Peters' remark, Sidney
remained silent, and shortly after, the motor having been cleaned
thoroughly, he went into the lantern, where he found the keeper awaiting
him.

Captain Eph had before him several open books, as if he had been
refreshing his memory on the subject of lenses, and immediately Sidney
appeared, he said, in an apologetic tone:

"I don't count on bein' able to give you the idee as to the work of the
lenses sich as a man ought'er; but I'll try my best, an' if I fail you
won't be any worse off than you are now. In the first place this 'ere is
what is known as a light of the first order, meanin' the most powerful
in the service, an' the lens alone cost about eight thousand dollars.
The middle part of the lens is made up of what's known as 'refractors,'
which, 'cordin' to my way of tellin' it, are rings of glass makin' a
hollow cylinder six feet in diameter, an' thirty inches high. Below it,
as is printed here," and Captain Eph pointed with his thumb to one of
the open books, "are six triangular rings of glass, ranged in a
cylindrical form, an' above it, a crown of thirteen rings of glass,
formin' by their union a hollow cage composed of polished glass, ten
feet high, an' six feet in diameter, like this 'ere," and Captain Eph
waved his hand toward the brilliant apparatus before them, a picture of
which is given here.

"But what is the need of making it out of so many pieces?" Sidney asked.
"Why wouldn't it be just as well to cover the lamp with a globe, such as
is on a house-lamp?"

"That, Sonny, is the hard part of explainin' the business, because I
don't know so much about it as I ought'er; but I've heard the inspector
talk somethin' like this: The flame of the lamp sends its rays in all
directions--up, down, an' sideways; an' what's wanted is to get the
light streamin' out in a straight line all around, so the top an' bottom
of this 'ere glass cage is put on to bend the rays till they go in the
same direction as those in the middle of the flame. 'Cordin' to the
inspector, when a ray of light strikes a prism of glass, it turns toward
the base, as you'll see in this--wa'al, I don't hardly know what to call
it--that I've been drawin' so's you'll understand what the inspector
means by bendin' the rays. You'll notice that, except in the middle, the
prisms are each set at a different angle, an' with a space between 'em,
which allows of catchin' every ray from the lamp--"

"Are you ever comin' down to your supper, or do you count on lettin' all
this 'ere food, that's taken me so long to shape up, go to waste jest
because you want'er talk 'bout what you don't understand?" was the cry
from the kitchen, and Captain Eph said hurriedly as he gathered up the
books:

"I reckon we'll have to finish this 'ere talk some other time, for Uncle
Zenas does surely seem to be gettin' nervous. He's a mighty handy man
'round a light-house; but I do wish he'd get over bein' so dreadful
particular about all hands settin' down to the table the very instant a
meal is ready. There are times, like this, when I'd rather linger a
little; but I don't dare to on account of his bein' so particular."

Although Captain Eph and Sidney made all possible haste to descend, the
cook called out twice more before they could get into the kitchen, and
the keeper said soothingly:

"Now, now, Uncle Zenas, you must give a man time to come down-stairs,
an' Sonny an' me couldn't have got here any sooner unless we'd tumbled
down, which wouldn't have been convenient or comfortable."

"I like to have folks at the table when things are ready," Uncle Zenas
replied tartly, and Captain Eph said with a wink at Sidney:

"Then you ought'er give us a little warnin'. Sing out when you begin to
put things on the table, an' you'll find us here an' waitin', the same
as Sammy is now."

Uncle Zenas made no reply to this remark, and it surely seemed as if the
incident was closed when Captain Eph asked that the food might be
blessed to them.

"I'm lookin' for clear weather to-morrow," Mr. Peters said as if he
expected to be contradicted, and much to his surprise the keeper said
promptly:

"So am I. 'Cordin' to the way I figger it out, the wind'll haul to the
west'ard when the tide turns, an' this smother will be well out to sea
by sunrise."

"An' s'posin' it all turns out as you predict, what about our goin'
ashore?" Mr. Peters asked.

"I'll agree to it if it so be Uncle Zenas is willin' to keep ship
alone," the keeper replied. "If the wind _does_ haul 'round, it won't be
any great hardship if you an' the cook turn out an hour earlier than
usual, so's we can get the lantern put to rights early."

"You can call all hands at three o'clock, so far as I'm concerned,"
Uncle Zenas interrupted, "an' then I'll be so far along with my end of
the work that I can give you a lift in the lantern."

"I don't reckon there's any great need of turnin' out quite so early as
that; but Sammy might wake me an hour sooner than usual, so's he could
get somethin' of a nap, an' we'll make it all hands 'bout four o'clock."

And thus it was arranged when Sidney went to bed, hoping most fervently
that he might waken in time to share the watch with Captain Eph; but it
so chanced that he did not open his eyes until nearly three o'clock next
morning, much to the disappointment.

He hurried into the watch-room as soon as possible, however, and there
found the keeper studying over the drawing he had made for the purpose
of showing how the rays of light were "bent."

"What are you doing, sir?" Sidney asked laughingly.

"Tryin' to figger this thing out so's to understand it myself," the
captain replied grimly. "I put it to you same's I'd heard the inspector
talk, but what puzzles me is why the light should go toward the thick
end of the prism any quicker than the other way."

Captain Eph had before him all the books of the library which might aid
in the work, and Sidney found the problem so interesting that it seemed
as if he had no more than begun before Uncle Zenas' voice was heard from
the room below, as he said petulantly:

"It strikes me if I was standin' watch I'd know when it was four
o'clock. How do you ever expect to get off on your voyage early, Ephraim
Downs, if you can't keep better run of the time than this?"

"All right, Uncle Zenas, all right! If you'll call Sammy we'll get our
odd chores done up before sunrise," the keeper cried, and the cook
replied:

"He'd ought'er be awake by this time; I've turned him clean over twice,
an' count on pullin' him out bodily if he don't make some kind of a move
before I count five."

The sound of a heavy body striking the floor below told that Mr. Peters
had "moved," and Sidney cried in surprise:

"If you'll believe it, I'd almost forgotten that we might go ashore this
morning. Has the fog cleared away?"

"Every blessed drop of it went to sea when the tide turned, jest as I
allowed; but I got so mixed up about the lens that it went straight
out'er my mind. Now it's a case of gettin' things inter shape with a
hustle."

Sidney went into the kitchen, believing he could be of more service
there than anywhere else, and, thanks to the will with which the crew
worked, the start was made in considerably less than an hour after
sunrise.

"Lay in all the stores that you've got on the list, for there's no
knowin' when you'll have another chance." Uncle Zenas cried as, the
voyagers having taken their places, he pushed the bow of the boat out
from the rocks.

Sidney reversed the screw until the little craft was clear by the ledge,
and then sent her ahead at a fair rate of speed, Captain Eph acting as
helmsman.

"There's some sense in goin' ashore this fashion," Mr. Peters said as he
lay back in the bow, resting his head on his hands. "If we had a craft
like this, I'd feel like takin' a day off every once in a while; but
when a man is obleeged to pull a lumberin' old dory a dozen miles or
more, it don't seem like takin' much of a rest."

"You go ashore as much as is good for you, Sammy," Captain Eph said
gravely. "I don't approve of gallivantin' 'round very much, an' it ain't
sich a great spell since you was off duty three whole days."

"That was more'n two years ago," Mr. Peters replied in an injured tone.

"Wa'al, I'll agree it was, an' what do you want? To go away every time
the moon changes? If you do, it would be a good idee to look up a
different job from tendin' one of the most important lights on this 'ere
coast."

Sidney, fearing lest the keeper and his assistant might come to sharp
words on the subject of vacations, put an end to the dispute by
proposing to show how fast the boat could run when all the power was
applied; but Captain Eph had no desire to try experiments.

"Fair an' softly, Sonny, is the best. I've never had much to do with
this kind of a craft, an' shouldn't feel overly easy to know you was
tryin' to shove her, for nobody can tell what may happen. Let her go
along easy-like, 'cause we've got time enough an' to spare 'twixt this
an' sunset."

Therefore it was that the boat was kept down to two-thirds the speed
which could readily have been maintained, and at the end of two hours
she had arrived at a little settlement which to Sidney looked very small
and mean; but to Captain Eph and Mr. Peters was almost a metropolis.

When the boat had been made fast to the dock, and the first assistant
had clambered ashore, the keeper whispered in Sidney's ear:

"I reckon, Sonny, you'll see a good many things you'd like to have, an',
comin' away from the schooner as you did, it ain't likely you've got any
great amount of money with you. Now jest take this, an' then you can
hold your end up with Sammy, for I expect he'll try to make a terrible
big showin' when we go into the shops."

"I don't want a thing, sir, indeed I don't," Sidney replied as he
squeezed the old keeper's hand, but without taking the silver pieces
which were in it. "Mr. Peters can make all the showing of money he
likes, and it won't make me feel queer."

"But I'd rather you was kind of independent, Sonny, an' it would do me a
heap of good if you took it."

Sidney began to understand that Captain Eph would consider it a
privilege to supply him with money, and he compromised the matter by
saying:

"There isn't a thing that I would be likely to want, sir; but if I
should see anything, I'll ask you to buy it for me."

"Will you really an' truly, Sonny?"

"Indeed I will, sir," the lad replied, and then the two joined Mr.
Peters on the wharf.

The first assistant led the way up through the one street of the
settlement as if he believed the new uniform he wore would cause a great
deal of excitement, and he was, in fact, the center of attraction while
he remained on shore, for even the children of the village had heard of
the three old cronies who kept the light on Carys' Ledge, holding to
their duties so closely as to visit the mainland no oftener than once in
two or three years.

Captain Eph, with the list of wants in his hand, stopped at the shop in
which was the post-office, where he mailed the report with strict
injunctions to the postmaster to "see that it left town the first thing
in the mornin'," and then began purchasing the supplies, stopping every
now and then to ask Sidney in a whisper if he "hadn't seen something he
wanted."

Mr. Peters had a little list of his own, much to the surprise of the
keeper, who had supposed that all the purchases were to be made from the
common purse, and it was not until nearly noon that the business was
finished.

The postmaster gave the three customers an urgent invitation to take
dinner with him; but Captain Eph pleaded that it was of the utmost
importance they get back to the ledge before dark, and at once began to
carry his stores to the wharf.

The motor boat was well loaded when the last package had been put on
board, and Mr. Peters, who seemed bent on keeping his goods separate
from the others, said as he stowed them snugly in the bow:

"I reckon it's well we didn't buy anything more, else we'd had to make
two trips in order to carry 'em all. Uncle Zenas will keep himself busy
for the next two months cookin' up fancy dishes, 'cordin' to the stuff
he ordered. I thought one spell you was goin' to clean the shop out."

"I bought what we agreed on yesterday, an' reckoned that made up the
lot; but it seems you wasn't satisfied," Captain Eph said, much as if he
was accusing the first assistant of some misdemeanor.

"Oh yes I was; everything you had on the list hit me to a T, for I'm
willin' to stand my part of the expense if Uncle Zenas wants to spread
himself as a cook, 'cause I can eat my full share three times every
day," and Mr. Peters indulged in a gurgling spell, such as always caused
Sidney considerable alarm.

"Then what did you need that the rest of us mustn't know anything
about?" Captain Eph asked sternly. "When Sonny an' me saw that you
wanted to be so terrible private over what you was buyin', we went out
on the sidewalk, so's to let you have your fling."

"Yes, I noticed that," Mr. Peters replied, as he continued to stow his
goods in the bow with the utmost caution, as if they might be injured in
case the motor boat shipped a little water; but he did not make any
explanations.

"When you get through fiddlin' with your--whatever it is you
bought--we'll get under way," and Captain Eph spoke sharply, as if he
was irritated, whereupon Sidney took his station in front of the motor,
ready to start the screw when the word should be given; but before the
first assistant could reply, even if he had been intending to do so, the
postmaster came down on the wharf, moving at a rapid pace as if his
business was urgent.

"I reckon you wanted that letter to go in the next mail, eh?"

"Sure, an' there mustn't be any mistake about it, for it's my official
report, an' nobody knows what might happen to the Light-House Board if
it didn't get to the inspector on time."

"When you was at the store I forgot to ask if anythin' had gone wrong
over on the ledge. It kind'er seemed as if there was somethin' out'er
the reg'lar, else you wouldn't be in sich a pinch to send a report," and
the postmaster looked inquiringly from one to the other.

"Nothin' wrong as I knows of," Captain Eph replied, much as if he was
making a great mental effort to recall to mind anything of an alarming
nature that had taken place on the ledge.

"Let me see," and the postmaster rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "It must
be quite a spell since any of you folks came ashore, ain't it?"

"The first assistant was here a leetle more'n two years ago."

"Yes, yes, I knew it was as long ago as that. Let me see, he didn't have
that boy with him then, did he?"

"I reckon not; leastways, not to my knowledge," and Sidney understood
that Captain Eph was growing impatient.

"I didn't know but he had jest joined your crew, an' then agin I said to
myself, seein's you was in sich a stir about gettin' the report off, it
might be there's been a wreck out that way lately, though we haven't
been havin' any bad weather since the light-house tender was there last."

Captain Eph made no reply, and Mr. Peters began to re-stow his packages,
working so industriously that no one could have expected him to join in
the conversation.

"That must be a new boat you've got?" the postmaster continued in a
questioning tone. "Does the Government furnish motor boats nowadays?"

"This 'ere ain't a Government craft," Captain Eph said curtly, and then
he asked Mr. Peters, "Ain't you ready yet, Sammy?"

"Everything is stowed, an' what ain't I can look after while we're
runnin'."

The keeper cast off the hawser, and took his seat in the stern-sheets,
while the postmaster walked slowly along the dock as the boat swung out
with the current, when he said inquiringly:

"Then there ain't nothin' gone wrong at the ledge? An' I reckon you've
taken the boy on to kind'er help you out in the work, eh?"

"Carys' Ledge lays jest where it did when I first took charge of the
light, an' if anything had gone wrong you wouldn't see us here, 'cause
we'd be there tryin' to put it to rights," Captain Eph said more sharply
than before, and he nodded to Sidney as if ordering him to start the
engine.

The lad believed he understood the mute command, and an instant later
the little craft was moving swiftly away, but not at such a pace as to
prevent them from hearing the postmaster cry:

"If anything has gone wrong, an' I can do you a good turn, let me know,
for I'm only too glad to oblige my neighbors."

Captain Eph shut his mouth tightly as if to keep back angry words, and
when the little craft was a mile or more from the wharf, he said to Mr.
Peters:

"I hope, Sammy, you'll let this be a lesson to you. Now you can get an
idee of how it sounds when a man tries to pry into other folks'
affairs."

"What do you mean by that?" and the first assistant looked up quickly
from the survey of his private stores. "Do you mean to hint that I go
'round pryin' into your business?"

"You most generally want to know what's goin' on, an' I've noticed that
you contrive to find out."

"Perhaps you didn't do any pryin' when you was so keen to see what I'd
been buyin'," Mr. Peters retorted, and in the hope of keeping peace
between these two old friends by changing the subject of the
conversation, Sidney asked:

"Why wasn't you willing the postmaster should know what had happened at
the ledge, sir?"

"Because, Sonny, I wouldn't encourage sich pryin'," Captain Eph replied
gravely. "The man ought'er had sense enough to know that the keeper of a
first order light don't run 'round tellin' everything he knows. Perhaps
if he'd come right out an' asked who you was, I might have told him; but
when he beat about the bush, guessin' this and guessin' that, I made up
my mind he shouldn't know the least little thing about what was goin' on
at the ledge."

"The amount of it is that we go ashore so seldom folks think nothin'
less'n an earthquake would fetch us out, an' that's why they're so
terribly curious," Mr. Peters said in a thoughtful tone, and Captain Eph
asked sharply:

"Is it in your mind that you don't have enough furloughs?"

"Not a bit of it," and Mr. Peters spoke emphatically. "I never go to
town that I don't wonder how people can manage to live there, 'cause
it's so dreadfully lonesome. Out on the ledge we have somethin' to do,
an' can see more or less, 'cept when the fog shuts down, but ashore all
they have to look at are the houses, an' I can't figger out why folks
will stay there."

Having thus given good evidence that Carys' Ledge was to him an ideal
place in which to live, Mr. Peters turned all his attention to the
re-stowing of his purchases, and Captain Eph watched him suspiciously,
until Sidney asked:

"How long do you suppose it will be, sir, before my father hears where I
am?"

"It's all owin' to when a letter can get there, Sonny. You may make up
your mind that the Board will send word the quickest way possible, an'
we've done the wisest thing by sendin' off the report, for we might wait
six months--perhaps more--before we could speak a craft bound to Porto
Rico."

"What's the matter with the inspector's telegraphin' to Sonny's father?"
Mr. Peters asked suddenly, and the keeper started in surprise as this
possibility was suggested.

"Now you can see how thick-headed I am!" he exclaimed. "Here is Sammy,
who couldn't be expected to look ahead so far as that, comes up with the
very idee. Of course the inspector will telegraph, 'cause I don't s'pose
it would cost him anythin', an' the chances are your father'll know the
whole story inside of the next eight an' forty hours."

"I hope that may be so," Sidney said half to himself, and Captain Eph
cried jealously:

"Are you so anxious as all that to get away from us, Sonny?"

"Indeed I'd be only too glad if I could stay at the light all winter,"
Sidney said earnestly; "but I can't bear to think that father is feeling
very, very bad believing I may be drowned."

"Of course you'd look at it in that light, Sonny, an' it shows your
heart is in the right place. I am an old fool for sayin' anything; but
the trouble is I've been gettin' it inter my head that you wouldn't go
away very soon."

"How can he?" Mr. Peters asked as he gave way to one of those alarming
gurgles he sometimes indulged in. "S'posen he knew this very minute
where Sonny was, how's he goin' to get at him till his schooner goes to
Porto Rico, unloads, takes on another cargo, an' comes back? I don't
reckon that voyage can be made in any two or three days!"

"Sammy, you do say the brightest things now an' then, for a man who
hasn't got a very big head, that I ever heard of," Captain Eph cried as
if a great load had been taken from his mind. "That's the second time
you've made me feel mighty good by jumpin' inter the conversation when I
didn't s'pose you'd know what to say!"




CHAPTER VII.

A LESSON ON BUOYS.


Before Mr. Peters could make any reply to the rather equivocal remark of
the keeper, Sidney, glancing over his shoulder carelessly, was startled
into a cry of surprise, for they were close aboard the ledge, and, as if
waiting for them, Uncle Zenas stood at the head of the little cove.

"What's the matter, Sonny?" Captain Eph asked solicitously.

"Nothing serious, sir. I was surprised at seeing that we were so near
the light. The boat has made better time than when we went over, and yet
I didn't know I was running the motor any faster."

"Very likely you kept the same pace with the machine; but this 'ere wind
has been pushin' us along a good two miles an hour," the keeper replied
as he waved his hand in greeting to Uncle Zenas.

"Ahoy on the boat!" the cook shouted as if he was hailing a ship half a
mile distant, and Mr. Peters took it upon himself to reply:

"Hello! What seems to be creepin' over you?"

"Did I put bakin' powder on that 'ere list?"

"That you did, an' the cap'n has brought what'll last six months, even
if you sit up nights tryin' to work it inter somethin' that we're bound
to eat 'cause we can't get anything else."

"Way enough, Sonny!" Captain Eph cried at this moment, and Sidney shut
off the supply of gas, thus bringing the screw gradually to a
standstill.

A moment later Uncle Zenas seized the bow of the little craft, dragging
it up on the ways, and the voyage had come to an end within six hours of
its beginning.

"Hold on there!" Mr. Peters cried excitedly when Uncle Zenas would have
taken from the boat the packages which had been stowed with such care.
"Don't touch anythin' here; your stuff is midships."

"But what are these?" and again Uncle Zenas made a movement as if he
would have taken up one of the packages; but the first assistant was so
frantic in his efforts to prevent him, that Sidney could not restrain
his mirth, for the battle-scarred veteran looked much like an old hen
defending her chickens.

"What in the name of goodness, Sammy, have you got there?" Uncle Zenas
asked in surprise, and he looked inquiringly at Captain Eph.

"I don't know anything about it," the keeper said in reply to the mute
question. "He's acted jest that way ever since we took the stuff
aboard--wouldn't let Sonny or me so much as put our fingers on it."

"But you must have seen what he bought," the second assistant cried as
he eyed the packages suspiciously.

"He was too sharp for us, an' when I saw that he was at some kind of
underhanded work, I let him have full swing, by goin' out of the shop.
Lend a hand with this 'ere stuff which we ain't ashamed to show, an'
then we'll have a chance to stretch our legs a bit. I'm pretty well
cramped up with sittin' still so long."

While Uncle Zenas obeyed this command, Mr. Peters carried his goods into
the tower, giving no heed to his comrades, and by the time the motor
boat had been run up on the ways to the door of the boat-house, he came
out looking exceedingly well pleased with himself.

Uncle Zenas had prepared an unusually appetizing dinner for the
voyagers, and while they were giving evidence of their appreciation of
his efforts by eating heartily, Captain Eph said with a long-drawn sigh
of content:

"I declare it does seem good to get home! It'll be many a long day
before I can be coaxed ashore agin, unless it so be that Sonny has to
go on business of his own."

This remark reminded Uncle Zenas of the main object for which the voyage
had been undertaken, and in answer to his questions the keeper explained
what had been done.

"Then I s'pose we can look for his father almost any day?" the cook said
inquiringly, and Captain Eph explained why, as Mr. Peters had presented
the matter, some considerable time must necessarily elapse before any
information could be received concerning Captain Harlow's movements.

"I'm allowin', since Sammy put me right on the matter, that the first
word we get will come from the inspector," the keeper said as if to
dismiss the subject, "an' we can count on keepin' about as we're goin'
for some time yet."

By this time the meal had come to an end, and when Uncle Zenas refused
all offers of assistance in stowing away the goods which had been
brought from the mainland, Captain Eph went into the watch-room,
followed by Sidney, for Mr. Peters had slipped out of the tower as if
afraid some one might take note of his movements.

"Well, Sonny," the keeper said when he was alone with the lad, "what do
you reckon you an' I had better do jest now?"

"I was watching the buoys as we went into the harbor, and wondered how
it was you knew so well on which side of them the channel was to be
found."

"I've been expectin' you'd ask that same question jest as soon as you'd
got well inter this 'ere light-house business, an' it strikes me you'll
know more about it by readin' somethin' I've put by here, than if I
spent the whole day tryin' to tell it in my clumsy way," the keeper said
as he gave to Sidney an open book, from which the lad read that which
follows:

"The buoy is to the seaman by day what the light is at night, and what
the fog signal is in thick weather. It tells him by its size, form,
color, and number how to avoid rocks and shoals, and shows the way in
and out of harbor.

"The buoy service has its own code of laws, State and national, a fleet
of small steamers for its maintenance, and a corps of contractors to
attend to the buoyage of coves and inlets impracticable to the steamers.
It has its depots for the storage of iron buoys, where they are painted
and numbered, or repaired, and also where wooden buoys are made ready
for service. It has its own directory printed yearly, in thirteen
volumes, distributed gratuitously for the benefit of commerce, in which
each one is mentioned by name, located by station, and described by
size, color, number, and vicinity.

"Congress prescribed, by act of September 28, 1850, that red buoys, with
even numbers, be placed on the right-hand side, and black buoys, with
odd numbers, on the left-hand side of channels approached from seaward;
that buoys placed on wrecks and other obstructions, having a channel on
each side, be painted with red and black horizontal stripes; that those
buoys placed in mid-channel, and which indicate that they must be passed
close-to to avoid danger, be painted with white and black perpendicular
stripes; and, finally, that perches, with balls, cages, etc., when
placed on buoys, will indicate a turning-point, the color and number of
the buoy showing the side on which they are to be passed.

"Iron buoys are hollow, with air-tight compartments, and are made of
three shapes, called nun, can, and ice-buoys. The nun-buoys are almost
conical in form; the can-buoy is in shape the frustum of a cone, nearly
approaching a cylinder, and the ice-buoy is found much like a spar-buoy,
of great length, slight thickness, and of the largest diameter near its
middle. Each shape is classified by size, and diversified by color and
number. They were once made of wooden staves, like barrels, but their
rapid destruction by submarine worms caused the substitution of
boiler-iron.

"The cost of these buoys varies with the price of iron, and they have
been sold to the Government for $41.81 in the case of third-class
buoys, up to $150 for those of the first-class.

"Buoys are exposed to many dangers, not the least of which is that of
being run down and ripped open by passing steamers. As the iron buoys
are made with compartments, they are rarely sunk, but their line of
floatation is often lowered, and their usefulness accordingly decreased.

"Spar-buoys frequently lose a portion of their length, which is cut off
by strokes of colliding propeller-blades. Despite state and national
statutes forbidding it, vessels will sometimes make fast to buoys, thus
gradually dragging them off their bearings. A buoy has sometimes been
set adrift that a reward might be obtained for its recovery; but this is
not a profitable operation, as the reward paid is varied with the
circumstances of each case.

"The buoy's worst enemy, however, is ice, when moving in mass, and with
a tide or current. A well-made, well-moored buoy at the mouth of a
narrow river can create an ice-gorge; but usually, when the ice moves in
force, the buoys met have their mooring-loops torn out, their
mooring-chains broken, or their mooring-anchors weighed; and in each
case the buoys are carried out to sea, when the buoy tenders give chase,
and, if successful in their capture, return them to position.

[Illustration: CAPE ELIZABETH.]

"The sea-going qualities of the large buoys are shown by their volunteer
voyages. One is now anchored off the coast of Ireland, where it was
picked up, about six weeks after it had been wrenched from its place in
New York harbor, and turned over to the Irish light-house establishment,
by which it was reported to the United States Light-House Board, when it
was presented to the Irish Board, who simply added to its former marks
their own, and moored it near the point where it came ashore, in
commemoration of its peculiar voyage.

"The iron ice-buoy is made of boiler-iron, and is divided into
compartments, so that any one may be pierced without sinking the buoy.
One of the first-class costs $275, is fifty feet long, and stands
twenty-two feet out of water. One of the second-class costs $181, is
forty feet long, and stands seventeen feet out of water. As with wooden
spar-buoys, the ice passes over them without carrying them away; but,
unlike the wooden buoys, they break the propeller blades which strike
them, instead of being broken, and, thus defending themselves, last many
times longer than spar-buoys, and, though costing more at first, are
more economical in the end."

Captain Eph had remained patiently near the window during all the time
Sidney was reading that which has been given here, and a smile
overspread his face as the lad said when he closed the book:

"It seems as if I ought to know all about buoys, after reading so much,
and I'll try not to forget it."

"The longer you stay with us, Sonny, the bigger idee you'll get of the
money it costs to keep the waters of this 'ere country in proper trim
for sailors. I reckon there ain't more'n one landsman in twenty who,
when he sees a light-house, could give any reasonable guess as to the
bigness of the service."

"There's a lot to learn about it," Sidney said with a sigh, and Captain
Eph replied laughingly:

"Indeed there is, Sonny, an' you ain't forced to wade through it all
unless your curiosity leads that way. There's a big fleet of steamers to
be talked about yet, an' they must surely cost a lot of money."

The keeper was interrupted by the voice of Uncle Zenas from the kitchen:

"Ephraim Downs, I want to know if your losin' your senses entirely?"

"Now Uncle Zenas, what seems to be the trouble with you?" the keeper
called down through the door. "Has the cookin' gone wrong, or didn't we
buy all the gim-cracks you wanted?"

"In case you haven't lost your senses, why is Sammy allowed to make a
jumpin' jack of himself all over this 'ere ledge? If anybody should see
him, it would be told everywhere on the mainland that we'd gone crazy,
an' then goodness only knows what might happen!"

"I didn't know Sammy was up to any capers, Uncle Zenas; but I'll look
into the matter, an' if he's doin' anything agin the rules an'
regerlations, I'll straighten him out in short order. Don't worry about
his bein' seen, for there isn't so much as a fisherman's dory in sight."

"He'd be cavortin' 'round jest the same if a whole fleet had hove to off
here," Uncle Zenas cried, and without waiting to make any reply, Captain
Eph hurried to one of the windows, from which Sidney was already gazing
out with a look of wonderment on his face.

"What in the name of goodness has come over Sammy?" the old keeper cried
to no one in particular; but Sidney replied in a tone of perplexity:

"It looks as if he was nailin' up a lot of sticks, sir."

"But he can't nail 'em to the rocks, an' whatever he puts up there will
be carried away by the first wave that breaks over the ledge!"

Mr. Peters certainly was acting in a very peculiar manner. He had in his
arms five or six strips of boards or planks, which had the appearance of
having been washed up from some wreck, and was striding to and fro,
evidently trying to find some place where he could place them in a sort
of frame-work, for, during the short time Captain Eph and Sidney watched
from the window, he made two unsuccessful attempts to secure them in an
upright position.

The old keeper watched his first assistant narrowly for some time,
evidently losing a tiny bit of his temper each moment, and presently it
was impossible for him to remain silent any longer:

"I ain't so certain but that we'll have to set about makin' a
straight-jacket for Sammy, an' we sha'n't have much more'n time to do it
before the lamp must be lighted. Come down with me, an' we'll try to
soothe him a little. I thought he acted queer about that stuff he
bought, an' most likely this spell was jest comin' on."

Sidney was not prepared to believe that the first assistant had become
insane so suddenly; but he followed the keeper down the narrow stairs,
eager to hear what explanation Mr. Peters might give for his peculiar
behavior.

When the lad entered the kitchen he saw Uncle Zenas standing in the open
door leading to the outside ladder, looking out as if in greatest alarm.

"Have you seen Sammy?" he asked in a whisper, and with such a comical
expression of fear on his face that Sidney was forced to laugh outright.

"You don't seem to think there's anything the matter with him," Uncle
Zenas said reproachfully. "That's because you don't know Sammy very
well. In all the years I've lived on this 'ere ledge, I never saw him
cuttin' up any sich capers as he's flingin' now."

"It looks to me as if he was hunting for a chance to build something,
sir. I can't see that he is acting very queerly."

"It's queer for him to be runnin' 'round so when there's no need of it,"
Captain Eph interrupted. "Sammy don't like work overly well, an' I never
saw him do any more than he could help. I'm goin' to know what's the
matter, though."

Then the keeper, while descending the ladder, called softly, as if
afraid of frightening his first assistant:

"Hello, Sammy, what seems to be the matter with you?"

"With me?" Mr. Peters repeated in astonishment. "What made you think
there was anything wrong?"

"What are you runnin' 'round so after?"

"An' why shouldn't I, if the notion strikes me? Are you afraid I'll do
any harm to the rocks?"

"Now don't get excited, Sammy; but it kind'er bothers Uncle Zenas an' me
to see you runnin' around as if you'd lost your head."

"Don't look, an' then you won't feel so bad," the first assistant said
sharply, as once more he attempted to fasten the strips of board in an
upright position, and Captain Eph asked impatiently:

"What are you tryin' to do, Samuel Peters? As the keeper of this 'ere
light, I call upon you to explain your actions."

Mr. Peters dropped the sticks and stared at Captain Eph in astonishment
while one might have counted ten, and then asked irritably:

"Is there anything in the rules an' regerlations to stop me from nailin'
these boards together, an' standin' 'em up on end, if so be it can be
done?"

"Not a thing, Sammy, not a thing; but it makes Uncle Zenas an' me feel
kind'er bad to see you jumpin' 'round at sich a rate. Does your old
wound trouble you any?"

By this time Mr. Peters began to understand somewhat of the fears in the
minds of his comrades, and it all seemed to him very comical. He laughed
until the tears ran down his cheeks, and his mirth brought on such an
attack of coughing that Sidney was really afraid he would be strangled.

"Thought I'd gone crazy, eh?" he cried as soon as it was possible for
him to speak. "You an' Uncle Zenas have been figgerin' how you could get
me into the hospital, I s'pose? Crazy!" and again the first assistant
laughed until he choked and gasped for breath. "Let me tell you, Cap'n
Eph, that when I do go off the hooks you won't see me loafin' 'round
peaceable as this, for I'll think I'm in front of Petersburg again, an'
cut up in a way that you can't call pleasant."

"But what are you tryin' to do, Sammy?" Captain Eph asked eagerly.
"What's the meanin' of your runnin' 'round with them strips of board
under your arm?"

"I'm tryin' to set up what you might call a frame; but can't find a
place to put it."

"But, Sammy, it wouldn't stand against the first wave that ever washed
over the ledge!"

"I know that, Cap'n Eph, an' I only want it to hold together till 'bout
eight o'clock to-night, an' then it can go drown itself for all I care."

"Now you're talkin' queer, agin, Sammy," the old keeper said in a tone
of real concern, and the first assistant replied as he struggled to
restrain his mirth:

"Look here, Cap'n Eph, jest try to hold in till eight o'clock to-night,
an' then you'll understand all about it. This 'ere is a little surprise
of mine, an' I reckon there ain't anythin' in the rules an' regerlations
to prevent me from springin' it."

Even Uncle Zenas was convinced by this time that Mr. Peters had not lost
any portion of his mind, and Captain Eph returned to the kitchen, where
he said, as if having solved some important problem:

"What Sammy bought when he was ashore has got somethin' to do with the
surprise he's countin' on givin' us, an' I s'pose we may as well let him
have his fling, for he always was a good deal of a boy."

As a matter of fact, so Uncle Zenas afterward told Sidney, Mr. Peters
was two years older than Captain Eph, but one might have thought, from
the way the others treated him, that the first assistant was a mere
child as compared with them.

The cook was brimming over with curiosity as to the nature of the
surprise which Mr. Peters had in store for them, and Captain Eph
confessed that he was "all in the dark"; but, remembering the shape of
some of the packages the first assistant brought with him, and his fear
lest they should get wet, Sidney believed he could make a very good
guess as to what was coming.

"He sha'n't be the only one on this 'ere ledge who can rig up a
surprise," Uncle Zenas finally said. "You two are to get out of this
kitchen, an' stay out until after the light is started; when I call you
to supper, come runnin', or I'll make considerable trouble."

"This way, Sonny," Captain Eph said with a laugh. "I reckon our place is
up-stairs whether they want us to go or not, for there's gettin' to be
altogether too much mystery about this 'ere ledge to suit me."

Sidney followed the keeper, and when the two were climbing the stairs,
the lad said:

"This must be one of the highest towers the Government ever built,
Captain."

"Indeed it isn't, Sonny, not by a long chalk. From the ledge to the
light is only one hundred an' twenty feet; but I've got up-stairs an
account of the highest tower the Board ever built, an' you shall read
it. I ain't tryin' to fill you chock-a-block with facts about
light-houses, but when you spring these 'ere questions on me I can't
help flashin' up what I know about 'em, which ain't a great deal when
you come to simmer it right down."

When the two were once more in the watch-room, the keeper handed Sidney
a slip of paper on which was printed the following:

"The tallest skeleton iron tower erected by the United States
Light-House Services was at Hell Gate, Astoria, N. Y., in 1883-84. Its
height was two hundred fifty-five feet and five-eighths of an inch. It
was built in the form of a frustum of a pyramid, and was fifty-four feet
square at the bottom and six feet square at the top. It cost $11,000,
and showed nine electric lights, each of which was of six thousand
candle power. It was designed to illuminate the narrow, intricate, and
dangerous channel as by artificial daylight. At night the effect was
grand. The tower itself could not be seen, and the lights appeared as if
hung from the heavens. It accomplished all that was intended, and more,
for the light was so brilliant that it dazzled the eyes of the pilots,
and prevented them from seeing objects beyond the circle illumined. The
shadows thrown were so heavy that they took the form of obstacles. So
the light was discontinued in 1886, at the instance of those who had
obtained its establishment. The tower was sold as it stood, for old
iron; but it was so strongly built that dynamite had to be used to
accomplish its overthrow."

"Captain Eph," Sidney asked as he ceased reading, "what shape is the
'frustum of a pyramid'?"

"Wa'al, Sonny, that 'ere bothered me so much when I first came here,
that I studied the thing up in a dictionary the inspector lent me, till
I knew all about it. You know what a 'pyramid' is in shape? Wa'al, jest
cut off the top, and what's left will be the frustum. It's like a good
many other words that puzzle a fellow, mighty simple when you study into
'em."

At this point conversation was interrupted by the sound of angry voices
below, and, going to the stairway, Captain Eph shouted:

"What's happenin' down there?"

"It's that 'ere Sammy," Uncle Zenas replied. "He's kickin' up a terrible
row out here, an' I wish you'd poke your head through the window so's to
make him mind his eye!"

"What's he doin'?"

"Tryin' to get in, an' I've got the door locked."

"Why don't you open it?"

"'Cause he can't come in till supper's ready. He went amblin' 'round the
ledge gettin' up his surprise, an' now he'll stay where he is for a
spell."

"I declare it does seem as if all hands of this crew had gone crazy
since daybreak!" Captain Eph exclaimed as he went to the window.

Opening it he looked out for an instant, and then, his weather-beaten
face convulsed with mirth, he said to Sidney:

"Come here, Sonny, an' have a squint at Sammy. I declare he looks jest
like a big grasshopper tryin' to crawl up a blade of grass."

After some difficulty, Sidney succeeded in getting a glimpse of Mr.
Peters as he stood on the iron ladder in front of the kitchen door,
pounding on it vigorously with his fist.

"Ahoy there!" Captain Eph cried as soon as he could control his mirth.
"What'er you doin', Sammy Peters?"

"I'm tryin' to get in, that's what I'm doin'!" the first assistant cried
angrily. "That pig of a Zenas Stubbs has locked the door in my face!"

"Go down an' 'tend to your surprise, Sammy," the keeper commanded.
"Uncle Zenas allows that he's got jest as much right to rig up fool
things as you have, an' it looks to me as if the only way was to hold on
till he's ready to spring on us whatever he's got."

"How long will that be?" Mr. Peters demanded angrily.

"Till after the light is started for the night, so he told me."

"An' where am I to stay all that time?"

"Crawl inter the boat-house, if you can't do any better, for I allow
Zenas Stubbs is standin' on his rights as the second assistant keeper of
this 'ere light."




CHAPTER VIII.

THE SURPRISES.


Uncle Zenas held possession of the kitchen, refusing admittance to Mr.
Peters from without, and threatening Captain Eph and Sidney with
severest penalties if they should attempt to descend, until the long
beams of light from the lantern illumined the waters in the vicinity of
Carys' Ledge, and then, flinging wide open the outer door, he summoned
all hands to supper.

As a matter of course no one was greatly surprised, because, owing to
the excessive precautions of the cook, the dwellers in the tower
expected to see something very elaborate in the way of a supper; but
they were not a little mystified as to how he had contrived to make so
many different dishes with such raw material as was at his command.

It was "a reg'lar Thanksgivin' spread," as Captain Eph declared, and
although the principal portion consisted of fish cooked in a variety of
ways, the second assistant had found among the stores a sufficient
amount of canned delicacies to relieve it of sameness.

Mr. Peters apparently forgot that he had been forced to spend
considerable time on the rocks, when it was his desire to be inside the
tower, and ate as if he had been deprived of food for many days.

"There's no use talkin', Uncle Zenas, you lay way over anybody I ever
saw when it comes to cookin,' an' this 'ere lay-out is fit for the best
king that ever lived," the first assistant said approvingly, as he
applied himself industriously to getting a full share of all that had
been placed before him. "It's growin' cold mighty fast, an' gives a man
quite an appetite to loaf around on the ledge only about half dressed."

"Don't make any excuses because you're eatin' a good deal," Uncle Zenas
said as he gave the first assistant another portion of the broiled
corned-fish. "I laid myself out on this supper so's you'd take hold with
a will, for it's what you might call a party that we're givin' to
Sonny."

"He's the one I was thinkin' 'bout when I figgered out my surprise," Mr.
Peters added, speaking indistinctly owing to the fullness of his mouth.

"When's that comin' off?" Captain Eph asked.

"I reckon it'll be time when we've finished supper, an' the sooner the
better 'cordin' to my idee, for if this nor'east wind ain't blowin' up a
storm I don't know anything about the signs."

"It wouldn't surprise me if we had snow," the keeper said with an air
of wisdom. "It's late enough in the season for somethin' of the kind,
an' this day has been what you might call a weather-breeder."

"I should think it would be snug and comfortable here in a storm,"
Sidney said thoughtfully, and Captain Eph replied:

"So it is, Sonny; but somehow a man can't really enjoy it because of
thinkin' of the many craft which must be off the coast battlin' with
it."

"Have there ever been any wrecks on this ledge?"

"Bless your heart, yes, Sonny. Many a vessel went ashore here before the
tower was built, an' we've had a wreck close at hand twice since, though
neither of the craft struck this ledge. If the weather is changin', as
Sammy says, it ain't very pleasant to be talkin' 'bout what's likely to
happen whenever the light can't be seen. Ain't it time for you to show
up your surprise, Sammy?"

"I reckon it is, Cap'n Eph, an' if all hands of you will sit over by
this window, I'll start the show."

"I wonder what it is he's got in his noddle?" the old keeper said
curiously as Mr. Peters went hastily out of the tower to the ledge
below, and Uncle Zenas declared that he "couldn't guess if he should try
all day"; but Sidney cried gleefully:

"I believe he bought some kind of fireworks when we were ashore, for I
noticed that the shop-keeper had to hunt around a good while before he
could find what Mr. Peters wanted, and you know how careful he was to
stow the packages where they wouldn't get wet."

"I declare if Sonny hasn't hit the nail right on the head!" Captain Eph
cried in delight, "an' there goes the beginnin' of his show."

It was evident that the first assistant had succeeded in putting up the
frame-work of boards, for by the time Captain Eph had ceased speaking
half a dozen small spinning wheels were revolving in a manner which told
that they were fastened to something above the level of the ledge.

The display of fireworks was not as brilliant as many Sidney had seen;
but the two keepers cried out again and again in delighted surprise,
thus proving that to them it was something very wonderful.

During fifteen minutes or more the exhibition was continued, and then,
the last fiery serpent having wriggled its way among the rocks, Mr.
Peters appeared in the doorway triumphantly happy.

"Wa'al, what do you think of it, Cap'n Eph?"

"It's jest great, Sammy, great!" the keeper replied emphatically. "I'm
wonderin' how you got the hang of settin' 'em off in that style."

"I've seen a good deal of them things, an' once I helped fire a big pile
of all kinds. It's been so long since I've had a Fourth of July, that I
got to hankerin' after it an' on the way over I made up my mind that if
there was any fireworks ashore left from last summer, I'd spread myself,
jest to show how glad we are 'cause Sonny has come to make us a visit."

Sidney tried to say something which should express his gratitude for all
that had been done for him by these kind-hearted old men, but, try as he
might, it was impossible, and Captain Eph, seeming to understand what
was in the lad's mind, cried heartily:

"Wa'al, Sammy, both you an' Uncle Zenas have done yourself proud on this
day. I don't know when there's been so much excitement on Carys' Ledge,
an' it pleases me same as it does Sonny; but we mustn't forget that
we're hired to look after this 'ere light, an' it's time we turned in,
else we'll get the watches mixed in great shape."

Then Captain Eph ascended the stairway, the others following, and ten
minutes later it was as if Carys' Ledge had never been the scene of such
bewildering festivities.

Greatly to his delight, Sidney was awake when Mr. Peters called the
keeper to perform his share of the night duties, and as soon thereafter
as he could make his toilet, the lad went into the room directly beneath
the lantern.

"How the wind howls!" he exclaimed after saying "good morning" to
Captain Eph. "It really seems as if the tower was shaking."

"I reckon it does sway a bit, for we're gettin' what you might call a
full-sized nor'east gale. Sammy was right when he allowed there'd be a
change in the weather, an' I wasn't so far out of the way when I talked
about snow."

"Is it snowing?" Sidney cried in surprise.

"Take a squint out of the window, an' you'll see the flakes comin' so
thick an' fast that it's worse'n a fog."

Sidney did as he was bidden, and after gazing into the wreaths of the
whirling particles which were revealed by the strong light from the room
above, he cried:

"I really believe the waves are breaking over the highest part of the
ledge!"

"If they are it won't be anythin' new, Sonny. Time an' time agin I've
looked outer that window when it seemed as if this 'ere tower stood
right in the sea, with never a rock showin' itself; but the surf ain't
runnin' as high as it will be in the mornin'. Then, whether the wind
dies away or not, you'll see the waves breakin' mighty near the kitchen
door."

"But what about the motor boat?" and Sidney looked alarmed.

"Sammy called me after he'd been on watch a couple of hours, an' we
went down to see what could be done. She's lashed fore an' aft to the
boat-house, but with all that there's danger of her bein' stove, an' we
can't do anything to prevent it."

"What shall I do? What shall I do?" Sidney cried in distress, for it
seemed to him that if the boat belonging to the _West Wind_ was
destroyed, the last link binding him to his father would be broken.

"There's nothin' you can do, Sonny," Captain Eph said soothingly, as he
took the lad in his arms. "Out here we have to take whatever comes,
without a chance of fightin' agin it. If your boat is lost you must try
to look pleasant, an' thank God this 'ere gale didn't spring up before
you reached Carys' Ledge."

The howling of the wind and the beating of the surf against the base of
the tower made such a noise that it was necessary those in the
watch-room should speak loudly in order that their words might be heard
above the tumult of the elements. Sidney clung tightly to Captain Eph,
with both arms around the old man's neck, for the danger seemed suddenly
to have increased as he realized that they were beyond reach of earthly
aid in event of any accident.

Never before had he understood how entirely alone were light keepers on
an isolated station, nor how ominous the howling of the wind might
sound under such circumstances.

"Could the wind blow this tower over, sir?" he asked, and Captain Eph
replied as he stroked the lad's hair affectionately.

"Now don't get anythin' like that inter your head, Sonny, although I
allow there's reason for it. When I first came to Carys' Ledge, an' was
standin' watch on a night like this, it seemed certain the tower would
go by the board; but after a time I made myself understand that it was
almost as firm as the solid rock. Besides, not bein' so big as to offer
much resistance to the gale, I question if even a full-sized tornado
could harm it."

"But light-houses are sometimes destroyed," Sidney whispered.

"Anything like that doesn't happen once in a hundred years. I reckon
you're thinkin' of Minot's Ledge Light, on the Massachusetts coast,
which was carried away in 1851; but in that case it was shown pretty
clearly the mischief was done through the keepers' disobeying orders."

"Tell me about it, sir."

"Wa'al, Sonny, I allow it ain't overly cheerful talk on a night like
this; but so long as it's in your mind I don't s'pose it'll make matters
seem worse if we go over the story. Nobody knows jest what time, on the
night of April 16th, the tower was carried away; but it's reasonable to
allow it was done about high water, which was an hour after midnight. It
was built on iron piles set into the rock, instead of bein' a solid
tower sich as are put up nowadays. I've heard them as should know, say
that keepers weren't held up to the rules an' regerlations as strict as
they are now, an' them as were in charge of Minot's Ledge Light had
built a platform well down below the livin' rooms, where they could stow
anything which it might not be convenient to keep inside. Here's what
the Government engineer, who was sent to look after the matter, said
about it," and Captain Eph, opening a book which lay near him, read the
following:

"'The keepers had improperly built a sort of deck or platform, upon
which were placed heavy articles, such as fuel, water-barrels, etc.,
which should have been in the store-room, designed for their reception.
The deck, in addition to the weight placed upon it, was fastened to the
piles and braces, thus offering a large surface, against which the sea
could strike.

"'In addition to this, the keepers had attached a five-and-a-half inch
hawser to the lantern deck, and anchored the other end to a granite
block, weighing, according to their account, seven tons, placed upon the
bottom at a distance of some fifty fathoms from the base of the tower.
The object of this was to provide means for running a box or
landing-chair up and down; but it is very clear that so much surface
exposed to the moving sea had the same effect upon the light-house as
would have been produced by a number of men pulling at a rope attached
to the highest part of the structure, with the design of pulling it
down.

"'At 4 o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, the 16th, or ten hours before the
light fell, the platform above mentioned came ashore at Cohasset. As
this was forty-three feet above the line of low water, and twenty-eight
feet above high water, spring tides, the sea had at that time reached
within seven feet of the base of the store-room of the light-house.
Without undertaking to speculate upon the probable shock that the
structure must have received from the effect of the sea upon a platform
fastened to the piles forty feet above the rock, it is enough to know
that the sea had reached within seven feet of the body or solid part of
the structure.

"'Still increasing, it required but a slight increase in the height of
the waves, after having reached the deck, to bring it in contact with
the main body of the structure. When this took place it is plain to
perceive that such a sea, acting upon the surface of the building at the
end of a lever fifty or sixty feet long, must be well nigh
irresistible, and I doubt not that the light-house was thus destroyed.'

"So you see, Sonny, carelessness had, 'cordin' to the belief of the
Government engineer, a good deal to do with the loss of the light,"
Captain Eph said as he came to an end of the reading.

"Was that the only light-house ever destroyed in a storm, Captain Eph?"

"Bless you, no, Sonny. There was the Eddystone, off Plymouth, England.
It was a fanciful sort of a thing, an' disappeared during a hurricane in
the year 1703. The tower was rebuilt, an' in 1755 was burned, because
there was a good deal of wood-work inside, which you won't find in
light-houses built nowadays. That makes up the list of coast lights that
have been destroyed, so you see we needn't bother our heads about
anything of the kind happenin' here, for Carys' Ledge Light has stood
against many a worse gale than this."

"But it shakes as if it was going over," Sidney persisted, and Captain
Eph replied with a laugh:

"This 'ere tremble ain't anything compared with what I have felt, an'
it'll be worse as the sea gets wilder, for--"

The old keeper did not finish his remark, for at that moment Mr. Peters'
head appeared through the trap door, as he said sharply:

"It strikes me that a man of your age, Cap'n Eph, could be in better
business than tellin' stories about light-houses that have been carried
away, to a lad who's gettin' his first taste of a storm in a place like
this! I wouldn't have thanked anybody for spinnin' sich yarns the first
year I came on this ledge. We didn't have a heavy sea in all that time
but I expected the tower would go, an' when a nor'easter struck us, I
allowed there wasn't any show of savin' our lives."

"I was only tellin' Sonny of the Eddystone an' Minot's, to prove that a
light-house what's been properly built don't go under in any kind of a
gale," Captain Eph replied, much as if apologizing for what he had said.
"I'd like to know what you're out'er bed for, Sammy Peters. It can't be
more'n half an hour since you turned in."

"I haven't been asleep anyway," Mr. Peters grumbled, "an' the reason for
it is that I can't help thinkin' we might do somethin' to put the motor
boat in better shape. It stands to reason there'll be a heavy sea
runnin' by sunrise, in which case there won't be much chance of savin'
her."

"I don't know what we can do, Sammy, unless we should turn out the dory,
an' put her inter the boat-house, which couldn't be thought of for a
minute because it's clean agin the rules an' regerlations."

"Of course you can't do anythin' of that kind. Cap'n Eph, no matter if
Sonny's boat _is_ worth five or six times as much as the dory; but what
about haulin' her up between the boat-house an' the tower? She'd be more
sheltered there."

"We couldn't do the job without callin' all hands, an' I don't feel as
if I'd be doin' right to take any chances jest to save property. The sea
is breakin' over the ledge already, an' the rocks remainin' out of water
must be covered with snow an' ice. Go back to bed, Sammy, for, as you
know full well, we've got no right to stick our noses outside this
night. After daybreak, if she's still sound, we may be able to work
somethin' for her safety."

Mr. Peters disappeared without further remark, evidently realizing that
the keeper was fully justified in refusing him permission to leave the
tower at such a time, and Sidney said half to himself as he gazed
through the window, trying to prevent the tremor of fear from being
apparent:

"It must be uncomfortable in a light-ship when the storm is so severe."

"Uncomfortable, Sonny? There's where you get danger! We're snug as mice
in here; but the poor fellows who keep a light-ship must have their
hearts in their mouths at sich a time. In this 'ere report I found a
little somethin' regardin' lights of that kind, which seemed to strike
the spot. Here it is," and the keeper handed Sidney an open book, from
which he read the following:

"The purpose of a light-ship is to do the work of a light-house in a
place where one is necessary, but where it has not been erected because
of the great difficulty, not to say expense, of such a structure. To
insure permanency of position is a matter of great difficulty. When
moorings have been made too heavy to drag, chains have broken; when they
have held, mooring-bitts have been torn out; when they have held, the
ship has foundered at her anchors, or the cable has been slipped, and
the ship has sought a harbor or gone to sea for safety."

"Is there a light-ship near here, sir?" Sidney asked as he finished the
reading.

"One lays off to the east'ard about twenty miles. I've never seen her,
because she hasn't been on the station more'n two years. I don't claim
to be anything of a coward in seafarin' matters; but I never wanted any
part of a light-ship in weather like this. Let's have a look around the
lantern, lad. If a body don't feel jest right in mind, it's a good idee
to move about a bit, instead of stayin' in one place listenin', for the
wind does contrive to make some mighty queer noises."

After assuring themselves the light was burning as it should, the two
went down to the kitchen, at Captain Eph's suggestion, and there ate
quite a hearty breakfast from that which remained of Uncle Zenas' feast.
Then it was Sidney understood, even better than while they were in the
watch-room, the danger which threatened the motor boat.

The waves were dashing entirely over the ledge, and now and then a heavy
one would strike the base of the tower with a force which seemed to jar
the entire structure.

"It'll soon be daylight, Sonny, an' then the storm won't seem so bad,
even though it may be worse," Captain Eph said soothingly, as he noted
the lad's start of alarm.

"Do you think my boat will be wrecked?"

"I'm obleeged to confess, Sonny, that the chances are agin her. It ain't
likely much damage has been done yet; but it won't be high tide till
eight o'clock, and then's when she'll get the worst poundin'."

The keeper and Sidney were yet sitting at the table when Uncle Zenas
entered the kitchen, and Captain Eph cried in surprise:

"What sent you out so early as this?"

"There's sich a racket up-stairs that I can't sleep; I was awake when you
two came through the room. What do you say to a cup of hot coffee?"

"It wouldn't go bad, Uncle Zenas, an' that's a fact, though Sonny an'
me have had quite a bite already."

The cook built a fire, and the cheery glow went very far toward
restoring to Sidney the courage which had oozed out of his finger ends
as the tower trembled under the blows of the tempest.

"You two have been up in the watch-room till you're half frozen," Uncle
Zenas said as he shoveled a generous supply of coal into the stove. "It
has grown cold mighty sudden, an' I reckon Sonny will need his coat by
the time I get it done."

"When will that be?" Captain Eph asked, hoping rather to turn Sidney's
attention from the raging of the gale, than because he was eager for
information.

"If nothing happens I'll take the last stitch in it by noon. I got on
famously with the work while you were ashore."

Then Uncle Zenas, after having filled the coffee pot, brought out the
partially finished garment for inspection, and before they were done
critising it, Mr. Peters came down-stairs, complaining bitterly of the
cold.

"It was lucky we went ashore yesterday," he said as he warmed his hands
over the stove. "I reckon it'll be quite a spell before we make any more
visits, or have any visitors."

Captain Eph was on the point of replying to this remark when suddenly,
even amid the roar of the tempest, could be heard a dull, booming sound,
so foreign to anything which the gale brought to their ears that even
Sidney ran to the window in alarm.

The gray light of the coming day had dispelled the darkness in some
slight degree: but the swirling downpour of snow was so great that it
was impossible to make out the crests of the surges twenty feet away,
yet all four remained at the window silent and motionless.

Then came that which they feared to hear--another dull report brought on
the wings of the gale, and there was no longer any doubt in the minds of
the keepers.

"God help 'em!" Captain Eph cried fervently as he began to pace the room
nervously, and Sidney asked:

"Help who, sir?"

"The poor wretches who are firin' that 'ere gun with the idee that there
may be some one near who can give 'em a hand."

"Do you mean that there is a wreck?" the lad asked, speaking in a tone
so low that none save the old keeper heard him.

"Ay, Sonny. This ledge makes off to the east'ard near half a mile, an'
the craft, whatever she may be, has struck there."

"How can you tell without seeing her, sir?" Sidney asked, as if hoping
to convince the keeper that he had made a mistake.

"In the first place, she must be there because the wind brings to us the
sound of her signal gun; she might be only half as far away on the other
side, an' we couldn't hear anything, owin' to the gale."

"She must be a large craft, else she wouldn't have a gun aboard," Mr.
Peters suggested, and Uncle Zenas nodded in token that he was of the
same opinion.

"I can't make out why any craft should be hereabouts in an easterly
blow," Captain Eph said with nervous impatience. "It seems to me that
any half-careful skipper would have clawed off shore at sunset, unless
he knew his way as I do this 'ere ledge!"

"Don't you count on trying to do anything?" Sidney asked as the men
moved nervously about the small room.

"That's what makes it so tough, Sonny," Captain Eph said in a tearful
tone. "There's nothin' we can do, but stay here an' think of the poor
wretches who are facin' death."

"Couldn't you go out in one of the boats, sir?"

"Bless your dear heart, Sonny, it ain't possible! The dory is the
better sea-boat of the two, an' we couldn't even launch her, to say
nothin' of pullin' up into the teeth of the gale."

"My boat doesn't need any pulling."

"She wouldn't be more'n an eggshell in this sea. There's nothin' but a
life-boat that could do the trick, an' the nearest station is a good
fifteen miles away."

Again the wind brought to them the boom of the gun, and Sidney covered
his eyes with his hands as if to shut out the picture his fears had
painted.

Mr. Peters went swiftly from window to window, although knowing full
well that nothing could be seen from either. Uncle Zenas walked from the
door to the stove, and then back to the door as if questioning whether
he should not open it, despite the fact that every now and then a wave
would dash against it, while Captain Eph paced swiftly to and fro,
stopping now and then to listen.

"There ought'er be a fog signal with this 'ere light!" he cried angrily,
and Uncle Zenas asked helplessly:

"S'posen there was? It wouldn't help them poor fellows out any, an' I'm
doubtin' if the best whistle that was ever made could have been heard a
mile away to the east'ard."

"There'd be some little comfort in blowin' it to tell the poor creeters
we're here an' willin' to help 'em. If she's a square-rigged vessel, as
I count she is, there's a chance of her holdin' together till mornin',
an' we're got to sit with our hands folded, listenin' to their calls for
help!"

Uncle Zenas ground more coffee to add to that which was already on the
stove, and then tried in vain to set about getting breakfast; but
succeeded in doing nothing.

It was a positive relief to Sidney when the keeper finally said:

"It's gettin' well on to sunrise, an' I'll go inter the lantern. Of
course there's no show of our bein' able to lend a hand out yonder; but
yet it won't do any harm to be ready, so eat your breakfast as soon as
it's cooked, Sammy."

"What about yours?"

"I don't want any."

"Neither do I. Do you think a man could eat while that gun is bein'
fired?"

Captain Eph ascended the staircase slowly, and Sidney asked timidly if
he might be allowed to go with him.

"Of course you may, Sonny. There's never any need of askin' to go with
me, my boy, for I'd like to have you by my side every minute of the day
or night."

Not until the two were in the lantern did Sidney speak, and then it was
to cry, as he burst into tears:

"Oh, Captain Eph, wouldn't it be dreadful if the wreck was the _West
Wind_, having come out here after me?"

"Bless your heart, Sonny, it couldn't be her no-how, for she's way down
by Porto Rico by this time."

"But father might have heard where I was, and come back after me!"

"Now don't get any sich idees into your head as that, for your father
don't even dream where you are, more's the pity. Why my report hasn't
yet reached the inspector, consequently there ain't a single soul,
outside of us four, who knows anything about the wreck of the _West
Wind_, because he hasn't come out here about it. Did the _West Wind_
have a gun aboard?"

"No, sir."

"Then that part of it is settled. The craft that's taken the ledge
yonder is a heavier vessel than your father's, so you can count him
right out

Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/41997