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diff --git a/40269.txt b/40269.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 41361c9..0000000 --- a/40269.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6466 +0,0 @@ - AT THE BLACK ROCKS - - - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Title: At the Black Rocks - -Author: Edward A. Rand - -Release Date: July 18, 2012 [EBook #40269] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: US-ASCII - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE BLACK ROCKS *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - -[Illustration: Cover] - - - -[Illustration: "'Shove hard, but sing easy.'" _Page 33_] - - - - - AT THE BLACK ROCKS - - - BY REV. EDWARD A. RAND - - - - - LONDON, EDINBURGH, - DUBLIN, AND NEW YORK - THOMAS NELSON - AND SONS - - - - - CONTENTS - - I. Was he worth Saving? - II. Caught on the Bar - III. Did the Schooner come back? - IV. What was he here for? - V. The Lighthouse - VI. Fog - VII. The Camp at the Nub - VIII. Visitors - IX. That open Book - X. The Christmas Gift - XI. At Shipton again - XII. On which side Victory? - XIII. What to do next - XIV. Guests at the Lighthouse - XV. The Storm Gathering - XVI. The Storm Striking - XVII. Thomas Trafton, Detective - XVIII. Into a Trap - XIX. A Place to Stop - - - - - AT THE BLACK ROCKS. - - - - I. - - _WAS HE WORTH SAVING?_ - - -"I might try," squeaked a diminutive boy, whose dark eyes had an -unfortunate twist. - -"Ye-s-s, Bartie," said his grandmother doubtfully, looking out of the -window upon the water wrinkled by the rising wind. - -"Wouldn't be much wuss," observed Bartholomew's grandfather, leaning -forward in his old red arm-chair and steadily eying a failing fire as if -arguing this matter with the embers. Then he added, "You could take the -small boat." - -"Yes," said Bart eagerly. "I could scull, you know; and if the doctor -wasn't there when I got there, I could tell 'em you didn't feel well, -and he might come when he could." - -"That will do, if he don't put it off too long," observed the old man, -shaking his head at the fire as if the two had now settled the matter -between them. "Yes, you might try." - -Bartie now went out to try. Very soon he wished he had not made the -trial. Granny Trafton saw him step into the small boat moored by the -shore, and then his wiry little arms began to work an oar in the stern -of the boat. "Gran'sir Trafton," as he was called, came also to the -window, and looked out upon the diminutive figure wriggling in the -little boat. - -"He will get back in an hour," observed Gran'sir Trafton. - -"Ought to be," said Granny Trafton. - -It is a wonder that Bartie ever came back at all. He was the very boy to -meet with some kind of an accident. Somehow mishaps came to him -readily. If any boy had a tumble, it was likely to be Bartie Trafton. -If measles slyly stole into town to be caught by somebody, Bartie -Trafton was sure to be one catcher. In a home that was cramped by -poverty--his father at sea the greater fraction of the time, and the -other fraction at home drunk--this under-sized, timid, shrinking boy -seemed as continually destined for trouble as the Hudson for the sea. - -"I don't amount to much," was an idea that burdened his small brain, and -the community agreed with him. If the public had seen him sculling -Gran'sir Trafton's small boat that day, it would have prophesied ill -before very long. The public just then and there upon the river was -very limited in quantity. It consisted of two fishermen wearily pulling -against tide a boat-load of dried cod-fish, a boy fishing from a rock -that projected boldly and heavily into the water, and several boys -playing on the deck of an old schooner which was anchored off the shore, -and had been reached by means of a raft. - -The fishermen pulled wearily on. The boys on the schooner deck ran and -shouted at their play. The young fisherman's line dangled down from the -crown of the big shore-rock. The small sculler out in Gran'sir -Trafton's small boat busily worked his oar. Bart did not see a black -spar-buoy thrusting its big arm out of the water, held up as a kind of -menace, in the very course Bart was taking. How could Bart see it? His -face was turned up river, and the buoy was in the very opposite quarter, -not more than twenty feet from the bow of the boat Bart was working -forward with all his small amount of muscle. A person is not likely to -see through the back of his head. Closer came the boat to the buoy. -Did not its ugly black arm, amid the green, swirling water, tremble as -if making an angry, violent threat? Who was this small boy invading the -neighbourhood where the buoy reigned as if an outstretched sceptre? On -sculled innocent Bartholomew, the threatening arm shaking violently in -his very pathway, and suddenly--whack-k! The boat struck, threatened to -upset, and did upset--Bart! He could swim. After all the unlucky falls -he had had into the water, it would have been strange if he had not -learned something about this element; but he had reached a place in the -river where the out-going current ran with strength, and took one not -landward but seaward. How long could he keep above water--that timid, -shrinking face appealing for pity to every spectator? The boys on the -deck of the old schooner soon saw the empty dory floating past, and they -now caught also the cry for help from the pitiful face of the panting -swimmer--a cry that amid their loud play they had not heard before. - -"O Dick," said one of the younger boys, "there's a fellow overboard, and -there's his boat! Quick!" - -At this sharp warning every one looked up. Then they rushed to the -schooner's rail and looked over. Yes: there was the white face in the -water; there was the drifting boat. - -The boy addressed as Dick was the leader of the party. His black, -staring eyes, and his profusion of black, curly hair, would have -attracted attention anywhere. His eyes now sparkled anew, and he tossed -back his bushy curls, exclaiming,-- - -"Boys, to the rescue! Attention! Man the _Great Emperor_." - -"Throw this rope," was a suggestion made by another boy, seizing a rope -lying on the deck. A rope did not move Dick's imagination so powerfully -as the _Great Emperor_. The rope was not nearly so daring as the raft, -though it would have given speedy and sufficient help. - -"To the rescue!" rang out Dick's voice. "Not in a rush! Ho, there! -Orderly, men!" - -Strutting forward with a blustering air, Dick led his rescue-band to the -_Great Emperor_, which at the impulse of every rocking little wave -thumped against the schooner's hull. The band of rescuers went down -upon the raft with more of a tumble than was agreeable to Captain Dick -of the _Great Emperor_. Dick concluded that there was too much of a -crew to dexterously manage the raft in the swift voyage that must now be -made. Several would-be heroes were sent back disappointed to the -schooner, and they proceeded, when too late, to cast the rope which had -been ignominiously spurned. It splashed the water in vain. Bartie tried -to reach it; but it was like Tantalus in the fable striving to pluck the -grapes beyond his grasp. - -"Cast off!" Dick was now shouting excitedly, pompously. "Pull with a -will for the shipwrecked mariner!" was his second order. - -This meant to use two poles in poling and paddling, as might be more -advantageous. - -In the meantime the boy fisherman on the rock had been operating -energetically though quietly. He had seen the catastrophe, and had not -ceased to watch the little fellow who was struggling with the current -somewhere between the schooner and the shore. Bartie had aimed to reach -the shore, and the distance was not great; but just in this place the -current ran with swiftness and power, and the little fellow's strength -was failing him. He had given several shrieks for help, but it seemed -as if he had been doing that thing all through life; and as the world -outside of gran'sir and granny had not paid much attention to his -appeals, would the world do it now? Bart had almost come to the -conclusion that it would be easier to sink than to struggle, when he -heard a noise in the water and close at hand. Was it the _Great -Emperor_? No; its deck was still the scene of an impressive -demonstration of getting ready to do something. The noise heard by Bart -had been made by the boy fisherman, who, stripping off his jacket, -kicking off his boots, and sending his stockings after them, had thrown -himself into the water, and was making energetic headway toward Bart. -It was good swimming--that of some one who had both skill and strength -on his side. - -"Bartie!" he shouted. - -What a world of hope opened before Bartie at the sound of that voice! - -"Here! here! Put your hands on my shoulders, not round my neck, you -know. There! that is it. Now swim. We'll fetch her." - -Fetch what? It was a pretty difficult thing to say definitely what that -indefinite "her" might mean. The current was still strong. Bart's -rescuer, if alone, could have gained the shore again; but could he bring -the rescued? Bart's face, pitiful and pale, projected just above the -water, and as his wet hair fell back upon his forehead his countenance -looked like that of a half-drowned kitten. - -A third party on the river, that of the fishermen in their cod-laden -boat moving slowly up river and hugging the shore for the sake of help -from the eddies, had now become conscious that something was going on. - -"What's that a-hollerin'?" asked one of the men, Dan Eaton, reversing -his head. - -"Trouble enough!" exclaimed Bill Bagley, who had also taken a look -ahead. "Pull, Bill!" - -"Put for them two boys, Dan! one is a-helpin' t'other." - -The boat began to advance as if the dead cod-fish had become live ones -and were lending their strength to the oarsmen. - -"Good!" thought the rescuer in the water, who saw between him and the -far-off, level, misty sky-line a boat and the backs of two fishermen. -"Hold on there!" he said encouragingly to Bartie; "there's a boat -coming!" - -The help did not arrive any too soon. Bartie's hands were resting -lightly on his rescuer's shoulders, and he was arguing if he could not -throw his arms around the neck of his beloved object, whether it might -not be well to relinquish his feeble, tired hold altogether, and drop -back into the soft, yielding depths of the water all about him; such an -easy bed to lie down in! Life had given him so many hard berths. This -seemed a relief. - -"Ho, there you are!" shouted Dan, as the boat came up. He seized -Bartie, while Bill Bagley gripped the other boy, and both Bartie and his -companion were hauled into the boat, rather roughly, and somewhat after -the fashion of cod-fish, but effectually. - -"Now, Dan, let us pull for that cove and land our cargo!" said Bill. -"You boys can walk home? We have got to go to the other side and take -our fish to town." - -"Oh yes," said the rescuer. - -"I--I--can--walk!" exclaimed the shivering Bartie. - -"Ah, youngster, you came pretty near not walking ag'in if it hadn't been -for t'other chap." - -This made Bartie feel at first very sober, and then he looked very -grateful as he turned toward his rescuers and said,-- - -"I--thank--you all. I--I--I'll do as--much for you--some time." - -"Will ye?" replied Bill Bagley with a grin. "Really, I hope we shan't -be in that fix where you'll have to." - -"See there!" exclaimed Dan. "There's the boat adrift!" - -The Trafton boat was leisurely floating down the stream. Bart had -forgotten all about this craft. A frightened look shadowed his face. - -"Don't you worry, Johnny!" said Bill Bagley kindly. "We will land you, -and then go a'ter your craft." - -"But I promised gran'sir to go for the doctor." - -"Dr. Peters?" - -"Yes." - -"Wall, Dan and I are goin' near the old man's, and we'll send him -over.--Won't we, Dan?" - -"And I'll bring your boat up to your landing," said his young rescuer to -Bart. "So you go right home and get warm and don't worry." - -A thankful look, like sunshine out of a dark cloud, broke out of Bart's -black eyes, and he shrank closer to the sympathetic breast on which he -leaned. - -"I'll do as much for you," he whispered to the boy fisherman. - -"That's all right, Bartie," replied his rescuer. - -"See here!" now inquired Dan. "What are those spoonies up to? Where -are they a-goin', I wonder, on that raft? To Afriky?" - -"Guess that craft's got to be picked up too. She's a-makin' for the sea -in spite of all their polin'," said Bill. - -The _Great Emperor_ was indeed moving seaward. Captain Dick was -frantically ordering his crew to "pull her round;" but like sovereigns -generally, the _Great Emperor_ had a mind of its own, and would not be -"pulled round." Deliberately the raft was making headway for the open -sea, and possibly "Afriky." It might be a conspiracy on the part of -wind and tide to aid in this wilful attempt of the raft; but if a -conspiracy, it was no secret. The tide was openly pressing against the -raft with its broad blue shoulders, and the wind openly blew against the -boys, as if they were so much canvas spread for its filling. - -"What you up to, fellers?" shouted Dick to Dab and John Richards, who -managed one of the poles. "Bring her round and head her for the shore!" - -"We can't," said John pettishly. - -"Can't!" replied Dick in scorn. "Why can't you? Tell me! Then we will -spend the night on the sea.-- You pull, Jimmy." - -"Can't!" said Jimmy Davis nervously. "She--she--won't turn--and--" - -Here his pole slipped out of its hole and down he tumbled on the raft, -his pole falling into the water. - -[Illustration: "Down he tumbled on the raft, his pole falling into the -water." _Page 16_] - -"Oh dear!" shrieked Dick. "What a set! There goes that oar! Reach -after it, Dab!" - -Dab already was beating the water furiously with his pole in his efforts -to reach that "oar" now adrift. It was all in vain. The conspiracy to -take them all to sea and there let them spend the chilly night had -spread to the very equipments of the _Great Emperor_. - -"Catch me on a raft ag'in!" whimpered John Richards. - -"Catch me on one with you!" replied Dick fiercely. "Might have got that -boy if you had pulled, and now those other folks have got him." - -"'Those other folks' are coming after us!" observed Dab Richards. - -"Oh dear!" groaned the humiliated Dick. "Make believe pull up river." - -"I won't!" said John Richards. - -"Pull so that they may think that we don't need them. Now!" urged Dick. - -"I won't!" declared Dab. - -Jimmy Davis also was going to say, "I won't;" but he remembered that his -pole was in the water, and refrained. He looked rebellious, though he -said nothing. - -There was now not only a conspiracy among the elements, but a mutiny -among the crew. Dick sulked. - -"Let her drift!" he said. "I don't care!" - -"She won't drift long!" remarked Dab sarcastically. "The _Great -Emperor_, that started to pick up somebody, is now going to be picked up -by somebody." - -Yes, the fishermen were pulling out from the shore. They picked up the -boat, attached it to their own craft, and then laboriously rowed for the -vessel in the hands of conspirators without and mutineers within. - -"Where you chaps bound?" shouted Dan. - -"Bound for the bottom of the sea," said Dick grimly. - -"We'll stave that off," said Bill. "Here, take this rope! Now, we must -try to git you ashore." - -It was rather a queer tug-boat that did the towing---a fisherman's dory -in which, sandwich fashion, alternated piles of codfish and oarsmen -rowing; Bill, Dan, and Bart's rescuer. It was a singular fleet also -that was towed ashore--the _Great Emperor_ and Gran'sir Trafton's boat. - -"Who is that boy rowing with those fishermen?" wondered Dick. "Can it -be--" - -Then he concluded it could not be. - -Again he guessed. "Must be--" - -Then he declared it was somebody else. - -Finally, when this strange fleet had been beached, Dick shouted out, -"That you, Dave Fletcher?" - -"Nobody else," answered Bart's rescuer, advancing. "I have been nodding -to you, but I guess you didn't know who it was; and I don't wonder--the -way I look after my bath. Haven't got on the whole of my rig yet. How -is Dick Pray?" - -The two shook hands warmly. - -"I haven't seen you for some time, Dave. I have been from home a while, -going to school and so on. I am stopping at my cousin's, Sam Whittles, -just now." - -"And I have been here only a few days, visiting at my uncle's, Ferguson -Berry." - -"All right. We will see each other again then. I'll leave the old raft -here and come for it when the tide is going up river." - -"And I am going to get the doctor. Oh no, come to think of it, these -men will get him for that little fellow's folks--the one we picked up, -you know." - -"We? You, rather. You did first-rate. Well, who was that little -shaver?" - -"I heard somebody call him Bartie. That's for Bartholomew, I guess." - -"Oh, it's 'Mew,'" explained Dab. "Bartholo*mew*; and they say 'Mew' for -short--'Little Mew.'" - -"His face looked like a kitten's there in the water," said Dick, "and he -mewed pitifully. I've heard of him. Sort of a slim thing. Well, may -sound sort of heartless, but I guess some folks would say he is hardly -worth the saving. Oh, you're off, are you?" - -"Yes," said one of the two fishermen who were now pushing their boat off -from shore. "We must get to town with our fish as soon as we can." - -"Well, friends, I am much obliged to you," said Dick Pray. - -"So am I! so am I!" said several others. - -"Count me in too," exclaimed Dave Fletcher. "Might not have been here -without you.--Give 'em three cheers, boys!" - -Amid the huzzahs echoing over the waters, the fishermen, smiling and -bowing, rowed off. - -"Many thanks, boys, if you will help me to turn Bart's boat over and get -the water out. I must row it up to the rock where the rest of my -clothes are, and then we might all go along together. We can pick up -the fellows on the schooner." - -The remnant of Captain Dick's crew on board the schooner gladly -abandoned it when Gran'sir Trafton's boat came along, and all journeyed -in company up the river. - -And where was Little Mew? He went home only to be scolded by gran'sir -because he had not brought the doctor, and because he had somehow got -into the water somewhere. Granny was not at home, and Little Mew dared -not tell the whole story. He was sent upstairs to change his clothes -and stay there till granny got home. - -"Gran'sir don't know I haven't got another shift," whined Little Mew. -"Got to get these wet things off, anyhow." - -He removed them and then crept into bed. It was dark when granny -returned. - -From the window at the head of his bed Bartie watched the sun go down, -and then he saw the white stars come into the sky. - -About that time the evening breeze began to breathe heavily; and was -that the reason why the stars, blossom-like, opened their fair, delicate -petals, even as they say the wind-flowers of spring open when the wind -begins to blow? - -"They don't seem to amount to much--just like me," thought Bartie; and -having thus come into harmony with the world's opinion of himself, he -closed his eyes, like an anemone shutting its petals, and went to sleep. - -Don't stars amount to much? They would be missed if, some night, people -looking up should learn that they had gone for ever. - -And granny coming home, having learned elsewhere the full story of -Little Mew's exposure to an awful peril, went upstairs, and, candle in -hand, looked down on the motherless child in bed fast asleep. - -"Poor little boy!" she murmured. "I should miss him if he was gone. -Yes, I should terribly." - -She wiped her eyes, and then tucked up Bartie for the night. - - - - - II. - - _CAUGHT ON THE BAR._ - - -Dave Fletcher and Dick Pray were boys who had grown up in the same town, -but from the same soil had come two very different productions. They -were unlike in their personal appearance. Dick Pray would come down the -street throwing his head to right and left, scattering sharp, eager -glances from his restless black eyes, and swinging his hands. - -"Somebody is coming," people would be very likely to say. - -Dave Fletcher had a quiet, unobtrusive, straight-forward way of walking. -Dick was quite a handsome youth; but the person that Dave Fletcher saw -in the glass was ordinary in feature, with pleasant, honest eyes of -blue, and hair--was it brown or black? - -Dave sometimes wished it were browner or blacker, and not "a -go-between," as he had told his mother. - -Dave and Dick were not as yet trying to make their own way; but they -were between fifteen and sixteen, and knew that they must soon be -stirring for themselves. - -They had already begun to intimate how they would stir in after life. - -Dave had a quiet, resolute way. There was no pretence or bluster in his -methods. In a modest but manly fashion he went ahead and did the thing -while Dick was talking about it, and perhaps magnifying its difficulty, -that inferentially his courage and pluck in attempting it might be -magnified. Dick's way of strutting down-street illustrated his methods -and manners. There was a great deal of bluster in him. Nobody was more -daring than he in his purposes, but for the quiet doing of the thing -that Dick dared, Dave was the boy. Somehow Dick had received the idea -that the world is to be carried by a display of strength rather than its -actual use; that men must be impressed by brag and noise. Thus -overpowered by a sensational manifestation they would be plastic to your -hands, whatever you might wish to mould them into. Dick did not -hesitate to attack any fort, scale any mountain, or cross any sea--with -his tongue. When it came to the using of some other kind of motive -power--legs for instance--he might be readily outstripped by another. -Among the boys at Shipton he had made quite a stir at first. His -bluster and brag made a sensation, until the boys began to find out that -it was often wind and not substance in Dick's bragging; and they were -now estimating him at his true value. Dave Fletcher was little known to -any of them save small Bartholomew Trafton; but Dave's modest, efficient -style of action they had seen in the saving of Little Mew, and they were -destined to witness it in another impending catastrophe. - -"Uncle Ferguson, who owns that old schooner off in the river?" asked -Dave one day, as he was eating his way through a generous pile of Aunt -Nancy's fritters. It was the craft to which had been tied the _Great -Emperor_. - -"Why, David?" - -"Because some of us boys want to go there and stay a night or two. We -take our provisions with us, and each one a couple of blankets, and so -on, and we can be as comfortable on the schooner as can be. Would you -and Aunt Nancy mind if we went?" - -"Mind if you went? No; I don't know as I do.--What do you say, Nancy?" - -Uncle Ferguson was a middle-aged man, with ruddy complexion and two blue -eyes that almost shut and then twinkled like stars when he looked at -you. - -Aunt Nancy was a plain, sober woman, with sharp, thin features, and -bleached eyes of blue. - -"Don't know as I mind," declared Aunt Nancy. "If you don't git into the -water and drown, you know." - -"Oh, that's all right," said the nephew. - -"Only you must see the owner of the schooner," advised the uncle. - -"The owner?" - -"Yes; Squire Sylvester. He is very particular about anything he owns." - -"Oh, I didn't know the thing had an owner," said Dave, laughing. "It -seems to lie there in the stream doing nothing. The boys didn't say -anything about an owner." - -"Squire Sylvester is very particular," asserted Uncle Ferguson. "He got -his property hard, and looks after it." - -"Yes, he is very pertickerler," added Aunt Nancy. - -"Well, we will see him by all means. We boys--" - -"Didn't think; that is it, David. Now, when I was a boy we always asked -about things," said Uncle Ferguson. - -"Well, husband, boys is boys, in them days and these days. I remember -your mother used to say her five boys used to cut up and--" - -"Well," replied Uncle Ferguson, rising from the table, "this won't feed -the cows; and I must be a-goin'. I would see Sylvester, David." - -"All right, uncle." - -Dave announced his intention to Dick half-an-hour later. - -"Well, go, if you want to. We fellows were not going to say anything to -anybody. Who would be the wiser? The thing lies in the river, knocking -around in the tide, and seems to say, 'Come and use me, anybody that -wants to.'" - -"If we owned the schooner we would prefer to have it asked for, if she -was going to be turned into a boarding-house for a day or two." - -"I suppose it would be safer to ask. If we didn't ask, and the owner -should come down the river sailing and see us, wouldn't there be music?" - -"We will save the music, Dick. I will just ask him." - -As Dave neared Squire Sylvester's office he could see that individual -through the window. He was a man about fifty years old, his features -expressing much force of character, his sharp brown eyes looking very -intently at any one with whom he might be conversing. Dave hesitated at -the door a moment, and then summoning courage he lifted the latch of the -office door and entered. - -"Good-day, sir." - -The squire nodded his head abruptly and then sharply eyed the boy before -him. - -"We boys, sir--" - -"Who are you?" asked the squire curtly. - -"David Fletcher. I am visiting at my uncle's, Ferguson Berry." - -"Humph! Yes, I know him." - -"We boys, sir, wanted to know if you would let us--" - -"What boys?" - -"Oh, Jimmy Davis, John Richards--" - -"I know those." - -"Dick Pray---" - -"Pray?" - -"He is visiting his cousin, Samuel Whittles." - -"Oh yes; I've seen him in the post-office. Curly-haired boy; struts as -if he owned all Shipton." - -"Just so." - -"Well?" - -"John Richards's brother--that is all. We want to know if you will let -us stay out in the old schooner for a while. We will try to be -particular and not harm the vessel." - -"How long shall you want to be gone?" - -"Oh, two or three days and nights." - -"Humph! Well, you can't have any fire on board. Got a boat?" - -"Yes, sir." - -"Of course, for you can't wade out to her. Put it out there on purpose -so folks couldn't paddle and wade out to her, such as tramps, you know. -Well, if you have a boat you can cook on shore." - -"Yes, sir." - -"You may have a lantern at night. No objection to that." - -"We will remember." - -"All right, then." - -"Oh, thank you! Good-day, sir." - -"Good-day." - -The squire's sharp brown eyes followed Dave as he went out of the door, -and then watched him as he tripped down the street laughing and -whistling. - -"Like all young chaps--full of fun. Rather like that boy." - -Dave announced the result of the conference to several boys anxiously -waiting for him round the corner. - -"Got it?" asked Dick Pray. - -"Yes; tell us what he said," inquired Dab Richards. - -The boys pressed eagerly up to Dave, who announced the successful issue -of his application. A burden of painful anxiety dropped from each pair -of shoulders, and the boys separated to collect their "traps," promising -to meet at Long Wharf, where a boat awaited them. Did ever any craft -make a happier, more successful voyage, when the boat received its load -two hours later and was then pushed off? - -"Everything splendid, boys!" said Dick. "Won't we have a time while we -are gone, and won't we come back in triumph?" - -The return! How little any of the party anticipated the kind of return -that would end their adventure! - -"There's the schooner!" shouted Dave. "I can read her name on the -stern--_RELENTLESS_. Letters somewhat dim." - -"She is anchored good," said Dab Richards. "Got her cable out." - -"Anchor at the bottom of it, I suppose," conjectured Jimmy Davis. - -"We will find out, boys, won't we? We will just hoist her a bit, as the -sailors say, and see what she carries," said Dick, in a low tone. - -"Nonsense!" said Dave. "Sylvester has our word for good behaviour." - -"Oh, don't you worry!" said Dick, in a jesting tone. "Let's see! Shall -we make our boat fast round there? Where shall it be?" - -The best mooring was found for the boat, and then a ladder with hooks on -one end was attached to the vessel's rail, and up sprang the boys -eagerly. - -The _Relentless_ was an old fishing-schooner. She had been stripped of -her canvas, and portions of her rigging had been removed. There were -the masts, though, still to suggest those trips to distant -fishing-grounds, when the winds had filled the canvas and sent the -_Relentless_ like an arrow shot from one curving billow to another. -There was the galley, empty now of its stove, and showing to any -investigator only a rusty pan in one corner; but the wind humming round -its bit of rusty funnel told a story of many a savoury dish cooked for a -hardy, hungry crew. And the little cabin, so still now, save when a -hungry rat softly scampered across its floor, had been a good corner of -retreat to many when heavy seas wet the deck on stormy nights and sent -the spray flying up into the rigging. - -The boys transferred their cargo of bedding and eatables to the deck, -and then scattered to ramble through the cabin or descend into the dark, -musty hold. They came together again, and lugged their baggage into the -cabin, save the dishes and eatables, which were stowed away on shelves. - -"This is just splendid, Dick!" declared Dave, leaning over the vessel's -rail. "It is going to sea without having the fuss of it." - -"That's so, Dave. You don't have any sea-sickness, any blistering your -hands with handling ropes, any taking in sail--" - -"Oh, it's huge, Dick. Now you want to divide up the work." - -"Not going to have any; all going to have a good time." - -"But who's going to cook, and bring water, and--" - -"Oh, I see! Forgot that." - -A division of work was finally pronounced sensible. Dave became "cook," -Jimmy Davis was elected "water-boy," Dick took charge of the sleeping -arrangements, and the brothers Richards were constituted table-waiters -and dish-washers--"without pay," Dave prudently added. All that day, up -to twilight, life in the old fishing-schooner was smooth and happy as -the music of a marriage-bell. Dave's cooking was adjudged "splendid," -and between meals there were spells of story-telling, of games like -hide-and-seek about the ancient hull, and of fishing from the deck, -though there sometimes seemed to be more fishermen than fish. - -At twilight most of the boys were seated in the stern of the vessel, -looking out to sea and watching the light fade out of the heavens and -the warm sunset glow steal away from the waters. - -"There's the light starting up in the lighthouse near the bar," said Dab -Richards. - -Yes, Toby Tolman, keeper of the light at the harbour's mouth, and not -far from a dangerous bar, ever changing and yet never going, had kindled -a star in the tall lantern as the western clouds dropped their gay -extinguisher on the sun's dwindling candle. Between the boys and the -outside, dusky surface of ocean water stretched a line of whitest foam, -where the waves broke on the bar. - -"Getting chilly," said Dave. "Hadn't we better go into the cabin and -light our lantern?" - -"Guess Dick is looking after that," said Jimmy. - -No; Dick was looking after--meddling, rather, with something else. He -had whispered to John Richards, "Come here, John," and then led him to -the bow of the vessel. - -"See here, Johnny." - -"What is it, Dick?" - -"Wouldn't it be nice to see this old ark move?" - -"Move! what for?" - -"Oh, I've got tired of seeing it in one place." - -"Why, what do you mean? How?" - -"Why, just have it go on a little voyage, you know." - -"Voyage?" - -"You booby, can't you understand?" - -"Understand? No," replied John good-naturedly. "Don't see how we can -have a voyage without sails, and the masts are bare as bean-poles when -there ain't any beans on 'em." - -"Oh, you're thick-headed. Don't you see this anchor?" - -"Don't see any. I suppose there is one somewhere--covered up, you know, -down on the bed of the river." - -"Only water covers it, and it could be raised, and we could have a sail -without any sails." - -"Come on!" said John, who was the very boy for any kind of an adventure. -"But," he prudently added, "how could we stop?" - -"Drop the anchor again. Why, we could stop any time." - -"So we could." - -"We could sail, say a hundred feet to-night--tide would drift us -down--and then we could drop anchor; and to-morrow, when the tide ran up -river, we could sail back again and drop anchor, just where we were -before." - -"We could keep a-going, couldn't we, Dickie?" - -"Certainly. I don't know but we could go quarter of a mile and then -back again. We should have, of course, to go with the tide; but the -anchor would regulate us." - -"So we could. Just the thing. Let's try it. Shall I tell the fellers?" - -"No; let's surprise 'em." - -"But they'll hear us." - -"No; they are quarrelling about something, and they won't notice -anything we do here." - -"But how can you manage the anchor?" - -"Raise it." - -"But how raise it?" - -"Johnny, I believe you have lost your mind since coming here. What is -this I have got my hand on?" - -"The capstan." - -Dick here laid his hand on a battered old capstan, around which how many -hardy seamen had tramped singing "Reuben Ranzo" or some other roaring -song of the sea. - -"Don't you know how this works?" - -"Not exactly." - -"I will tell you. You see this bar?" - -Dick with his foot kicked a battered but stout bar lying at the foot of -the capstan. - -"There! one end of the cable to which the anchor is hitched goes round -this capstan, you see. Now, if I stick this bar into that hole in the -capstan and shove her round--I mean the bar--the capstan will go round -too, and that will wind up that cable and draw on the anchor. Don't you -see?" - -"Yes, I see." - -"Well, now we are ready. I will sing something like real sailors." - -"The boys will hear us." - -"No: they are fighting away; they won't notice." - -It was a tongue-fight, but that may be as absorbing as a fist-fight. - -"You know 'Reuben Ranzo'?" - -"Yes." - -"Well, sing in a whisper and pull." - -The bar was inserted into the capstan, and the boys, as they shoved on -the bar, sang softly,-- - - "O poor Reuben Ranzo! - Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!" - - -"That's the chorus, Johnny. Sing the other part. Shove hard but sing -easy." - - "Oh, Reuben was no sailor. - _Chorus_--O poor Reuben Ranzo! - Ranzo, boys, Ranzo! - O poor Reuben Ranzo! - Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!" - - -"Sing another verse, Johnny. That shove just took up the slack-line, -and the next will pull on the anchor. Hun-now, Johnny! You're a real -good sailor. Sing easy, but shove." - - "He shipped on board of a whaler. - _Chorus_--O poor Reuben Ranzo! - Ranzo, boys, Ranzo! - O poor Reuben Ranzo! - Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!" - - -The last tug at the bar came hard, but the boys took it as an -encouraging sign that the anchor too was coming. They were not -mistaken. Another minute, and Johnny eagerly exclaimed,-- - -"Dick, I do believe she's going!" - -"Good! That's so. I knew 'Reuben Ranzo' would bring her." - -Yes, the _Relentless_ had relented before the fascinating persuasion of -"Reuben Ranzo," and without a murmur of resistance was softly slipping -through the dark sea water. - -"Can you stop her any time, Dick?" asked Johnny in tones a bit alarmed. - -"Easy. Just let the anchor slip back again, you know." - -"Shan't we tell the boys?" - -"Wait a moment. We want to surprise 'em. They'll find it out pretty -soon." - -The boys at the stern had been discussing a subject so eagerly that -every one had lost his temper, and when that is lost it may not be found -again in a moment. It was like starting the _Relentless_--a thing quite -easily done; but as for stopping her--however, I will not anticipate. -The boys were quarrelling about a light on shore, and wondering why that -illumination was started so early, when it did not seem dark enough for -a home light. In the course of the discussion a second light, not far -from the first, came into view. Over this the controversy waxed hotter -than ever, and led to much being said of which all felt heartily -ashamed. - -No one heard the creak of the capstan-bar at the bow or the devoted -wooing of the _Relentless_ by the fascinating "Reuben Ranzo." - -"That's funny," said Dave, after a while. "One of those lights has -gone. They have been approaching one another, I have noticed. Look -here, fellers: I believe this old elephant is moving!" - -"She is," exclaimed Jimmy Davis. - -They all turned and looked toward the bow. The figures there were -growing dim in the thickening twilight, but they could see Dick and -Johnny waving their hats, and of course they could plainly hear them -shout, "Hurrah! hurrah!" - -"What's the matter?" cried Dave, rushing across the deck. - -"Having a sail," said Dick. - -"And without a sail too," cried Johnny triumphantly. - -"What do you mean?" asked Dab. - -"Why, we just hoisted the anchor, and the tide is taking us along," -replied Dick. The party at the stern did not know how to take this -announcement. - -"But," said Dave, advancing toward the capstan, and remembering his -promise to Squire Sylvester that he would be "particular," "we are -adrift, man!" - -"Oh, we can stop any time--just drop the anchor--and the next tide will -drift us back where we were before." - -"Y-e-s," said Dave, but reluctantly, "if we don't get in water too deep -for our anchor. I like fun, Dick, but--" - -"Oh, well," replied Dick angrily, "we will stop her now if you think we -need to be so fussy.--Just let her go, Johnny." - -Johnny, however, did not understand how to "let her go." It seemed to -him and the others as if "she" were already going. - -"Oh, well, I can show you, if you all are ignorant," said Dick -confidently. "Just shove on this bar--help, won't you?--and then knock -up that ratchet that keeps the capstan from slipping back--there!" - -The weight of the anchor now drew on the capstan, and round it spun, -creaking and groaning, liberating all the cable that had been wound upon -it; but when every inch of cable had been paid out, what then? - -"There! The anchor must be on bottom, and she holds!" shouted Dick in -triumph. - -"No--she--don't," replied Dab. "We are in deep water, and adrift." - -"Can't be," asserted Dick. "All that cable paid out!" - -Dick leaned over the vessel's rail and tried to pierce the shadows on -the water and see if he could detect any movement. -"Don't--see--anything that looks like moving, boys. Surely the anchor -holds her," he said, in a very subdued way. - -"Dick, see that rock on the shore?" asked Dave. - -A ledge, big, shadowy, could be made out. - -"Now, boys, keep your eyes on that two or three minutes and see if we -stay abreast of it," was Dave's proposed test. - -Five pairs of eyes were strained, watching the ledge; but if there had -been five hundred, they would not have seen any proof that the vessel -was stationary. - -The ledge was stationary, but the _Relentless_-- - -"Well," said Dick, scratching his head, "I don't think we need worry. -We--we--" - -"Can drift," said Dab scornfully. - -"It is of no use to cry over spilled milk," said Dave, in a tone meant -to assure others. "Let's make the best of it, now it's done, and get -some fun out of it if we can. All aboard for--Patagonia!" - -"Good for you," whispered Dick. "The others are chicken-hearted. We -shall come out of it all right; though I wish the schooner's rudder -worked, and we might steer her." - -The rudder was damaged and would not work. - -"Say, boys, we might tow her into shallow water!" suggested Dave. "Come -on, come on! Let's have some fun. And see--there's the moon!" - -Yes, there was a moon rising above the eastern waters, shooting a long, -tremulous arrow of light across the sea. The boys' spirits rose with -the moon, and as the light strengthened, their surroundings--the -harbour, the lighthouse near the bar, the shores on either hand--were -not so indistinct. - -"Not so bad," said Dick in a low tone to Dab. "There's our boat, you -know. We can get into that and let this old wreck go. We can get -ashore. We will have a lot of fun out of this." - -The situation was delightful, as Dick continued to paint its -attractions. They could have a "lot of fun" out of the schooner, and at -the same time abandon the source of it when that failed them. Dave -talked differently. - -"Come, boys, we must try to get the old hulk ashore," he said. "I -believe in staying by this piece of property long as we got permission -to use it; but we will make the best of our situation. All hands into -the boat to tow the schooner into shallow water!" - -The boys responded with a happy shout, and climbed over the vessel's -side, descending by the ladder that still clung to the rail. - -"What have we got to tow with?" asked Jimmy Davis. - -"That is a conundrum!" replied Dave. "Didn't think of that!" - -"May find something on the deck," suggested Dick. - -A hunt was made, but no rope could be found. - -"Boys, we have got to tow with the boat's painter; it's all we have -got," said Dave, in a disgusted tone. This rope was about ten feet long. -It was attached to the schooner's bow, and how those small arms did -strain on the oars and strive to coax the _Relentless_ into shoal water! - -"Give us a sailor's song, Dick," said Jimmy Davis. - -"I will, boys, when I get my breath," replied Dick, puffing after his -late efforts and wiping the sweat from his brow. "I'll start 'Reuben -Ranzo.'" - -The boys sang with a will, and their voices made a fine chorus. - -"Reuben" had been able to coax the schooner away from her moorings, but -he could not win her back. - -True to her name, she obstinately drifted on. - -"Don't you know anything else?" inquired Dave. - -"I know 'Haul the Bow-line.'" - -"Give us that, Dick." - -"I'll start you on the words, boys,-- - - 'Haul the bow-line, Kitty is my darling; - Haul the bow-line, the bow-line haul.' - -Sing and pull, boys." - -The boys sang and the boys pulled, and there was a fierce straining on -that bow-line; but no soft words about "Kitty" had any effect on the -_Relentless_. It seemed as if this obdurate creature were moved by an -ugly jealousy of "Kitty," and drifted on and on. - -"It's of no use!" declared Dick. "I move we untie our rope and go -ashore and let the old thing go. We have done what we could to get -ashore." - -He did not say that he had done what he could to get the _Relentless_ -adrift, and had fully succeeded. Dave did not twit him with the fact, -but he was not ready to abandon the schooner. - -Some of the boys murmured regrets about their "things." They did not -want to forsake these. - -"Well, boys," said Dick, with a boastful air, "I'll get you out of the -scrape somehow. We might go on deck again, and hold a council of war -and talk the situation over." - -Any change was welcomed, and the boys scrambled on deck again. Dick was -the last of the climbing column. - -"Hand that painter up here and I'll make it fast," said Dave. "Then -come up and we will talk matters over." - -"Oh!" said Dick, who was half-way up the ladder, "I forgot to bring that -rope up." - -He descended the ladder and reached out his foot to touch the boat, but -he could not find it! When he had left the boat, a minute ago, he gave -it unintentionally a parting kick, and--and--alas! The boat was now too -far from the schooner's side to be reached by Dick's foot. - -"Get something!" he gasped. "Bring a--pole--and--get that boat!" - -The boys scattered in every direction to find a--they did not know what, -that in some way they might reach after and capture that escaping boat. -Their excitement was intense but fruitless. There were now two vessels -adrift--a schooner and a dory--serenely floating in the still but strong -current, steadily moving seaward, and the moonlight that had been -welcomed only revealed to them more plainly the mortifying situation of -the party. - -"Ridiculous!" exclaimed Dick. - -Most of the boys looked very sober. Dave put his hands in his pockets -and whistled. - -"Well, boys, don't you worry! I'll get you out of this in good fashion -yet," cried Dick. "We can't go far to sea, and then the tide will bring -us back again in the morning." - -"Far to sea!" said Dab mockingly. "There's the lighthouse on the left, -and it looks to me as if we should hit the bar!" - -The bar! The boys started. At the mouth of the river the sand brought -down from the yielding shores would accumulate, and it formed a bar -whose size and shape would annually change, but the obstacle itself -never disappeared. There it stretched in the navigator's way, seriously -narrowing the channel; and of how many catastrophes that "bar" had been -the occasion! The breakers above were soft and white, and the sand -below was yielding and crumbling; and yet just there how many vessels -had been tripped up by that foot of sand thrust out into the harbour! -The boys laughed and tried to be jolly, but no one liked the situation. -It was a very picturesque scene,--the moonlight silvering the sea, the -calmly-moving schooner and boat, that lighthouse like a tall, stately -candlestick lifting its quiet light; but, for all that, there was the -bar! Either the night-wind was growing very chilly, or the boys -shivered for another reason. - -"Don't worry, fellows," said Dick, putting as much courage as possible -into his voice. "When this old thing hits, you see, we shan't drift -right on to the bar, but our anchor will catch somewhere on this side. -That will hold us. I can swim, and I'll just drop into the sea and make -for the light and get Toby Tolman's boat, and come and bring you off." - -He then proceeded to hum "Reuben Ranzo;" but nobody liked to sing it, -and Dick executed a solo for this unappreciative audience. - -"How--how deep is the water inside the bar?" said chattering Jimmy -Davis. He felt the cold night-air, and he shook as if he had an ague -fit. - -"Pretty deep," solemnly remarked Dab Richards. - -The musical hum by the famous soloist, Dick Pray, ceased; only the -breakers on the bar made their music. - -Dick began to doubt seriously the advisability of dropping into that -deep gulf reputed to be inside the bar. It was now not very far to the -lighthouse, and the surf on the bar whitened in the moonlight and fell -in a hushed, drowsy monotone. People by the shore may be hushed by this -lullaby of the ocean, but to those boys there was nothing drowsy in its -sound; it was very startling. - -"I--I--I--" said Jimmy. - -"What is it, Jimmy?" asked Dave. - -Jimmy did feel like wishing aloud that he could be at home, but he -concluded to say nothing about it. Steadily did the _Relentless_ drift -toward that snow-line in the dark sea. - -"Almost there!" cried Dave. - -"May strike any moment!" shouted Dab. - -Yes, nearer, nearer, nearer, came the _Relentless_ to that foaming bar. -The boat had already arrived there, and Dave saw it resting quietly on -its sandy bed. Did he notice a glistening strip of sand beyond the -surf? He had heard some one in Shipton say that at very low tide there -was no water on portions of the bar. This fact set him to thinking -about his possible action. It now seemed to him as if the distance -between the stern of the vessel and the bar could not be more than a -hundred feet. The bow of the vessel pointed up river. She was going -"stern on." How would it strike--forcibly, easily? - -[Illustration: "Nearer and nearer came the '_Relentless_' to that -foaming bar." _Page 43_]] - -"Ninety feet now!" thought Dave. "Will the shock upset her, pitch us -out, or what?" - -Sixty feet now! - -"The bar looks sort of ugly!" remarked Johnny Richards. - -Thirty feet now! - -"Wish I was in bed!" thought Jimmy Davis. - -Twenty feet now! - -Had the schooner halted? The boys clustered in the bow and looked -anxiously over to the bar. - -"Boys, she holds, I do believe," said Dave. - -"All right!" shouted Dick--"all right! The anchor holds!" - -It did seem an innocent, all-right situation: just the quiet sea, the -musically-rolling surf along the bar, the stately lighthouse at the -left, and that schooner quietly halting in the harbour. - -"Now, boys," exclaimed Dick, "we can--" - -"I thought you were going to swim to the lighthouse?" observed Dab. - -"Oh, that won't be necessary now," replied Dick. "We are just masters of -the situation. The moment the tide turns we can weigh anchor and drift -back again just as easy! Be in our old quarters by morning, and nobody -know the difference. Old Sylvester himself might come down the river, -and he would find everything all right. Ha! ha!" - -Dick's confidence was contagious, and when he proposed "Haul the -Bow-line," his companions sang with him, and sang with a will. How the -notes echoed over the sea! Such a queer place to be singing in! - -"Mr. Toby Tolman," said Dick, facing the lighthouse, "we propose to wake -you up! Let him have a rouser. Give him 'Reuben Ranzo!'" - -While they were administering a "rouser" to Mr. Toby Tolman, somebody at -the stern was dropping into the sea. He had stripped himself for his -swim, and now struck out boldly for the bar. Reaching its uncovered -sands he ran along to the boat, lying on the channel side of the bar and -not that of the lighthouse, leaped into the boat, and, shoving off, -rowed round to the bow of the schooner. There was a pause in the -singing, and Dick Pray was saying, "This place makes you think of -mermen," when Dab Richards, looking over the vessel's side, said, "Ugh! -if there isn't one now!" - -"Where--where?" asked Johnny. - -"Ship ahoy!" shouted Dave from the boat. "How many days out? Where you -bound? Short of provisions?" - -"Three cheers for this shipwrecked mariner just arrived!" cried Dab. -And the hurrahs went up triumphantly in the moonlight. Dave threw up to -the boys the much-desired painter, and the runaway boat was securely -fastened. - -"There, Dave!" said Dick, as he welcomed on deck the merman: "I was just -going after that thing myself, just thinking of jumping into the water, -but you got ahead of me. Somehow, I hate to leave this old craft." - -"I expect," said Dab Richards, a boy with short, stubby black hair and -blue eyes, and lips that easily twisted in scorn, "we shall have such -hard work to get Dick away from this concern that we shall have to bring -a police-officer, arrest, and lug him off that way." - -"Shouldn't wonder," replied Dick. "Couldn't be persuaded to abandon -this dear old tub." - -"Well, boys, I'm going to the lighthouse as soon as I'm dressed," said -Dave. - -There was a hubbub of inquiries and comments. - -"What for?" asked Dick. "Ain't we all right?" - -"I hope so; but I want to keep all right. I want to ask the -light-keeper--" - -"But all we have got to do is to pull up anchor when the tide comes, and -drift back." - -"Oh yes; we can drift back, but where? We can't steer the schooner. We -don't know what currents may lay hold of her and take her where we don't -want to go. There are some rocks with an ugly name." - -"'Sharks' Fins!'" said Jimmy. "Booh!" - -"What if we ran on to them?" said Dave. "We had better go and ask Toby -Tolman's opinion. He may suggest something--tell us of some good way to -get out of this scrape. He knows the harbour, the currents, the tides, -and so on. Any way, it won't do any harm to speak to him. I won't -bother anybody to go with me. Stay here and make yourselves -comfortable; I will dress and shove off." - -When Dave had dressed and returned, he found every boy in the boat. -Dick Pray was the first that had entered. - -"Hullo!" shouted Dave. "All here, are you? That's good. The more the -merrier." - -"Dave, we loved you so much we couldn't leave you," asserted Dick. - -"We will have a good time," said Dave. "All ready! Shove off! Bound -for the lighthouse!" - -The old schooner was left to its own reflections in the sober moonlight, -and the boat slowly crept over the quiet waters to the tall lighthouse -tower. - - - - - III. - - _DID THE SCHOONER COME BACK?_ - - -Mr. Toby Tolman sat in the snug little kitchen of the lighthouse tower. -He was alone, but the clock ticked on the wall, and the kettle purred -contentedly on the stove. Music and company in those sounds. - -The light-keeper had just visited the lantern, had seen that the lamp -was burning satisfactorily, had looked out on the wide sea to detect, if -possible, any sign of fog, had "felt of the wind," as he termed it, but -did not discover any hint of rough weather. Having pronounced all things -satisfactory, he had come down to the kitchen to read awhile in his -Bible. The gray-haired keeper loved his Bible. It was a companion to -him when lonely, a pillow of rest when his soul was weary with cares, a -lamp of guidance when he was uncertain about the way for his feet, a -high, strong rock of refuge when sorrows hunted his soul. - -"I just love my Bible," he said. - -He had reason to say it. What book can match it? - -As he sat contentedly reading its beautiful promises, he caught the -sound of singing. - -"Some fishermen going home," he said, and read on. After a while he -heard the sound of a vigorous pounding on the lighthouse door. - -"Why, why!" he exclaimed in amazement, "what is that?" - -He rose and hastily descended the stair-way leading to the entrance of -the lighthouse. To gain admission to the lighthouse, one first passed -through the fog-signal tower. The lighthouse proper was built of stone; -the other tower was of iron. They rose side by side. A covered -passage-way five feet long connected the two towers, and entrance from -the outside was first through the fog-signal tower. The foundation of -each tower was a stubborn ledge that the sea would cover at high-water, -and it was now necessary to have all doors beyond the reach of the -roughly-grasping breakers. Otherwise they would have unpleasantly -pressed for admittance, and might have gained it. The entrance to the -fog-signal tower was about twenty feet above the summit of the ledge, -and from the door dropped a ladder closely fastened to the tower's red -wall. Around the door was a railed platform of iron, and through a hole -in the platform a person stepped down upon the rounds of the ladder. -Toby Tolman seized a lantern, and crossing the passage-way connecting -the two towers, entered the fog-signal tower, and so gained the -entrance. Just above the threshold of the door he saw the head and -shoulders of a boy standing on the ladder. - -"Why! who's this, at this time of night?" said Toby. - -"Good-evening, sir. Excuse me, but I wanted to ask you something." - -It was Dave Fletcher. - -"Any trouble?" - -"Well, yes." - -"Come in, come in! Don't be bashful. Lighthouses are for folks in -trouble." - -"Thank you." - -When Dave had climbed into the tower Dick Fray's curly head appeared. - -"Oh, any more of you?" asked the keeper. "Bring him along." - -"Good-evening," said Dick. - -Then Jimmy Davis thrust up his head. - -"Oh, another?" asked Toby. "How many?" - -"Not through yet, Mr. Tolman," said Dave, laughing. - -Johnny Richards stuck up his grinning face above the threshold. - -"Any more?" said the light-keeper. - -And this inquiry Dab Richards answered in person, relieving the ladder -of its last load. - -"Why, why! wasn't expecting this! All castaways?" - -"Pretty near it, Mr. Tolman," said Dick. - -"Come up into the kitchen, and then let us have your story, boys." - -They followed the light-keeper into the kitchen, so warm, so cheerfully -lighted. - -In the boat Dick Pray had been very bold, and said he would go ahead and -"beard the lion in his den;" but when at the foot of the lighthouse, he -concluded he would silently allow Dave to precede him. The warmth of the -kitchen thawed out Dick's tongue, and now that he was inside he kept a -part of his word, and made an explanation to the light-keeper. He stated -that they had had permission to "picnic" on the schooner, had--had--"got -adrift"--somehow--and were caught on the bar, and the question was what -to do. - -"Perhaps you can advise us still further," explained Dave. "One -suggestion is that when the tide turns we pull up anchor and drift back -with the tide." - -"Anchor?" asked Mr. Toby Tolman. "I thought you went on because you -couldn't help it. Didn't know you dropped anchor there." - -Dick blushed and cleared his throat. - -"The schooner was anchored, but," said Dick, choking a little, -"we--we--got--got--into water too deep for our anchor, and kept on -drifting till the anchor caught in the bar." - -"Oh!" said the light-keeper, who now saw a little deeper into the -mystery, though all was not clear to him yet. "What will you do now? -It is a good rule generally, when you don't know which way to move, not -to move. Now, if you pull up anchor and let the next tide take you -back, there is no telling where it will take you. Some bad rocks in our -harbour as well as a lot of sand. 'Sharks' Fins' you know about. An -ugly place. Now let me think a moment." - -The light-keeper in deep thought walked up and down the floor, while the -five boys clustered about the stove like bees flocking to a flaming -hollyhock. - -"See here: I advise this. Don't trouble that anchor to-night. The sea -is quiet. No harm will be done the schooner, and her anchor has -probably got a good grip on some rocks down below, and the tide won't -start her. A tug will bring down a new schooner from Shipton to-morrow, -and I will signal to the cap'n, and you can get him to tow you back. -What say?" asked the keeper. "'Twill cost something." - -"That plan looks sensible," said Dave. "I will give my share of the -expense." - -Dick looked down in silence. He wanted to get back without any exposure -of his fault. The tug meant exposure, for the world outside would know -it. The tide as motive power, drifting the schooner back, would tell no -tales if the schooner went to the right place. There would, however, be -danger of collision with rocks, and then the bill of expense would be -greater and the exposure more mortifying. He scratched his head and -hesitated, but finally assented to the tug-boat plan, and so did the -other boys. - -"Very well, then," said the keeper, "make yourselves at home, and I'll -do all I can to make you comfortable." - -What, stay there? Did he mean it? He meant a night of comfort in the -lighthouse. - -What a night that was! - -"I wouldn't have missed it for twenty pounds," Johnny Richards said to -those at home. - -And the breakfast! It was without parallel. The schooner was held by -its anchor inside the bar, and the boys in the morning visited their -provision-baskets, and brought off such a heap of delicacies that the -light-keeper declared it to be the "most satisfyin' meal" he had ever -had inside those stone walls. - -About nine o'clock he said, "Now, boys, I expect the tug-boat will be -down with that schooner. When the cap'n of the tug-boat has carried her -through the channel, I will signal to him--he and I have an -understanding about it--and he will come round and tow you up, I don't -doubt. You might be a-watching for her smoke." - -Soon Dab Richards, looking up the harbour, cried out, "Smoke! she's -coming!" - -Yes, there was the tug-boat, throwing up a column of black smoke from -her chimney, and behind her were the freshly-painted hull, and new, -clean rigging of the lately launched schooner. The boys, save Dave, -went to the _Relentless_, as the light-keeper said he would fix -everything with the tug-boat, "make a bargain, and so on," and Dave -could hear the terms and accept them for the party if he wished. The -light-keeper had also promised in his own boat to put Dave aboard the -tug. - -But what other tug-boat was it the boys on the _Relentless_ saw steaming -down the harbour? They stood in the bow and watched her approach. - -"She looks as if she were going to run into us," declared Dick. - -"She certainly is pointing this way," thought Johnny. - -"Our friends may be alarmed for us," was Dab's suggestion. - -This could not be, the other boys thought, and they dismissed it as a -teasing remark by Dab. And yet the tug-boat was coming toward them like -an arrow feathered with black smoke and shot out by a strong arm. - -"It is certainly coming toward us," cried Dick in alarm. Who was it his -black eyes detected among the people leaning over the rail of the -nearing tug-boat? - -He looked again. - -He took a third look. - -"Boys," he shouted, "put!" - -How rapidly he rushed for a hatchway, descending an old ladder still in -place and leading into the schooner's hold! Fear is catching. Had Dick -seen a policeman sent out in a special tug to hunt up the boys and -secure the vessel? Johnny Richards flew after Dick. Jimmy Davis -followed Johnny. Dab was quickly at the heels of Jimmy. Down into the -dark, smelling hold, stumbling over the keelson, splashing into the -bilge water, and frightening the rats, hurried the still more frightened -boys. - -"Who was it, Dick?" asked Dab. - -"Keep still boys; don't say anything." - -"Can't you tell his name?" whispered Johnny. - -There it was, down in the dark, that Dick whispered the fearful name. -When the tug-boat, the _Leopard_, carrying Dave neared the schooner, the -captain said, "You have another tug there. It is the _Panther_." - -The _Leopard_ hated the _Panther_, and would gladly have clawed it out -of shape and sunk it. - -"I don't understand why the _Panther_ is there," said Dave; "I really -don't know what it means." - -"You see," said the master of the _Leopard_ fiercely, "if that other -boat is a-goin' to do the job, let her do it (he will probably cheat -you). I can't fool away my time. The _Sally Jane_ is waitin' up stream -to be towed down, and I would like to get the job." - -"We will soon find out what it means, sir. Just put me alongside the -schooner." - -"I will put my boat there, and you can jump out." - -Who was it that Dave saw on the schooner's deck? Dave trembled at the -prospect. He could imagine what was coming, and it came. - -"Here, young man, what have you been up to? A precious set of young -rascals to be running off with my property. I thought you said you -would be particular. The state prison is none too good for you," said -this unexpected and gruff personage. - -"Squire Sylvester," replied Dave with dignity, "just wait before you -condemn after that fashion; wait till you get the facts. I did try to -be particular. I don't think it was intended when it was done; boys -don't think, you know--" - -"When what was done?" - -"Why, the anchor lifted--weighed--" - -"Anchor lifted!" growled Squire Sylvester. "What for?" - -"Just to see it move, and have a little ride, I think." - -"Have a little sail! Didn't you know, sir, it was exposing property to -have a little sail?" - -Here the squire silently levelled a stout red forefinger at this -opprobrious wretch, this villain, this thief, this robber on the high -seas, this--with what else did that finger mean to label David Fletcher? - -"But the anchor was dropped again, and it was thought, sir, that -it--that it would stop--" - -"And the vessel did not stop! Might have guessed that, I should say. -You got into deep water." - -"We were going to hire the _Leopard_ to tow it back, and any damages -would have been paid. I am very sorry--" - -"No apologies, young man. What's done is done. I have got a tug-boat to -take the vessel back." - -"And you don't want me?" here shouted the captain of the _Leopard_. - -"Of course not," muttered the captain of the _Panther_, showing some -white teeth in derision. - -"I don't know anything about you," said Squire Sylvester to the captain -of the _Leopard_; "this other party may settle with you." - -"I'll pay any bill," said Dave to the _Leopard_, whose steam was -escaping in a low growl. - -"Can't waste any more time," snarled the _Leopard_. He rang the -signal-bell to the engineer, and off went his tug. - -"Well, where are your companions?" said Squire Sylvester to Dave.--"O -Giles," he added to the _Panther_, "you may start up your boat if you -have made fast to the schooner." - -"Weigh the anchor fust, sir." - -"Oh yes, Giles." - -The anchor weighed, the _Panther_ then sneezed, splashed, frothed, and -the _Relentless_ followed it. Squire Sylvester declared that he must -find the other runaways; that they must be on board the schooner, and he -would hunt for them. He discovered them down in the hold, and out of -the shadows crawled four sheepish, mortified hide-aways. - -And so back to its moorings went the old schooner. - -Back to his office went Squire Sylvester, mad with others, and mad with -himself because mad with others. - -Back to their homes went a shabby picnic party, and after them came a -bill for the expense of the _Relentless's_ return trip. It costs -something in this life to find out that the thing easily started may not -be the thing easily stopped. - - - - - IV. - - _WHAT WAS HE HERE FOR?_ - - -Bartie Trafton, _alias_ Little Mew, was crouching behind a clump of -hollyhocks in a little garden fronting the Trafton home. It was a -favourite place of retreat when things went poorly with Little Mew. -They had certainly gone unsatisfactorily one day not long after the sail -that was not a sail. He had perpetrated a blunder that had brought out -from Gran'sir Trafton the encouraging remark that he did not see what -the boy was in this world for. Bartie had retreated to the hollyhock -clump to think the situation over. He was ten years old, and life did -have a hard look to Little Mew. He never supposed that his father cared -much for him. When the father was ashore he was drunk; when he came to -his senses, and was sober, then he went to sea. Bart sometimes wondered -if his mother thought of him and knew how he was situated. - -"She's up in heaven," thought Bart among the hollyhocks, and to Bart -heaven was somewhere among the soft, white clouds, floating like the -wings of big gulls far above the tops of the elms that overhung the roof -of the house and looked down upon this poor little unfortunate. If -earth brought so little happiness, because bringing so little -usefulness, then why was Bart on the earth at all? - -"I don't see," he murmured. - -The question was a puzzle to him. He was still looking up when he heard -the voice of somebody calling. - -"It is somebody at the fence," he said. It was a musical voice, and -Bart wondered if his mother wouldn't call that way. He turned; and what -a sweet face he saw at the fence!--a young lady with sparkling eyes of -hazel, fair complexion, and cheeks that prettily dimpled when she -laughed. He surely thought it must be his mother grown young and come -back to earth again. There was some difference between that face, so -picturesquely bordered with its summer hat, and the puzzled, irregular -features under the old, ragged straw hat that Bart wore. - -"Are you the little fellow I heard about that got into the water one -day?" asked the young lady. - -"Yes'm," said Bart, pleased to be noticed because he had been in the -water, while thankful to be out of it. - -"Well, I'm getting up a Sunday-school class, and I should like very much -to have you in it. Would you like to come?" - -"Yes'm," said Bart eagerly, "if--if granny and gran'sir would let me." - -"Where are they? You let me ask them." - -"She's got a lot of tunes in her voice," thought Bart, eagerly leading -the young lady into the presence of granny and gran'sir. - -They were in a flutter at the advent of so much beauty and grace, and -gave a ready permission. - -"Now, Bartie--that is your name, I believe--" - -"Yes'm." - -"I shall expect you next Sunday down at that brick church, Grace Church, -just on the corner of Front Street." - -"I know where it is." - -"And one thing more. Do you suppose you could get anybody else to -come?" asked the young lady. - -"I'll try." - -"That's right. Do so. Good-bye." - -"Good-bye." - -Bart was puzzled to know whom to solicit for the Sunday school. -Gran'sir was so much interested in the young lady that Bart concluded -gran'sir would be willing to go if asked and if well enough; but Bart -concluded that gran'sir was too old, and he said nothing. Sunday -itself, on his way to the church, Bart saw a recruit. It was Dave -Fletcher. - -"Oh, you will go with me, won't you? I haven't anybody yet," he said -eagerly. - -"What do you mean?" replied the wondering Dave. - -"Oh, go to Sunday school with me. I said I would try to bring some -one." - -Dave smiled, and Bart interpreted the smile as one half of an assent. - -"Oh, do go! I said I would try. And she's real pretty." - -"Who? your teacher?" - -"Yes." - -"Well, that is an inducement. But I am only going to be here a Sunday -or two. My visit is almost over." - -"Oh, well, it would please teacher." - -Dave smiled again, and this Bart interpreted as the other half of the -assent desired. - -"Oh, I am so glad! I'll tell you where it is." - -"W-e-l-l! It won't do any harm. I can go as visitor, and I suppose it -would please my family--" - -"Family?" - -"My father and mother and sister, if they should know I had visited the -Sunday school. Come along! We don't want to be late, you know. I'll be -visitor, and perhaps they will want me to make a speech at the school. -Ha! ha!" - -Bart pulled Dave eagerly into the entry of the church, and then looked -through the open door into the room where he knew the Sunday school met; -for Bart had been a visitor once in that very same place. - -"Oh, I see teacher," thought Bart, spying his friend in a seat not far -from the door. Her back was turned toward him, but he had not forgotten -the pretty summer hat with its fluttering ribbons of blue. Dave, with a -smile, followed the little fellow, who was timorously conveying his -prize to the waiting young lady. She looked up as Bart exclaimed, -"Here, teacher! I've got one." - -[Illustration: "'Here, teacher! I've got a recruit.'" _Page 63._] - -"Why, Dave," she exclaimed, "where did you come from?" - -"Annie--this you?" he said. The two began to laugh. Bart in surprise -looked at them. - -"This is my sister, Bart," explained Dave. "Ha! ha!" - -That beautiful young lady and the big boy who had saved him sister and -brother? He might have guessed such a friend as Dave would have such a -sister as this nice young lady. She was visiting at Uncle Ferguson's. - -"You see, Dave, when I began my visit I did not expect to teach while -here; but I met the minister, Mr. Porter, and he said he wished I would -start another class for him in his Sunday school and teach it while -here, and I could not say no; and went to work, and have been picking up -my class. I didn't happen to tell you." - -The Rev. Charles Porter, at this time the clergyman at Grace Church, was -an old friend of the Fletcher family. Meeting Annie in the streets of -Shipton, and knowing what valuable material there was in the young lady, -he desired to set her to work at once; and when her stay in town might -be over, he could, as he said, "find a teacher, somebody to continue to -open the furrow that she had started." - -Dave enjoyed the situation. - -"I will play that I am superintendent, Annie, and have come to inspect -your class, and will sit here while you teach." - -"I don't know about allowing you to stay here, sir, unless you become a -member of the class and answer my questions, Dave." - -Annie was relieved of the presence of this inspector; for a gentleman at -the head of a class opposite, noticing a big boy among Annie's flock of -little fellows, kindly invited Dave to sit with his older lads. - -"I am Mr. Tolman," said the gentleman. "Make yourself at home among the -boys." - -"Thank you, sir," said Dave; and his sister, with a roguish smile, bowed -him out of her class. - -That Sunday was an eventful day to Little Mew. It was pleasant any way -to be near this young lady, who seemed to him to be some beautiful being -from a sphere above the human kind in which he moved. And then Bart was -interested in the subject Annie presented. She talked about heaven and -its people. She talked about God; but she did not make him that far-off -being that Bart thought he must be, so that the louder people prayed the -quicker they would bring him. She told how near he was, all about us, -so that we could seem to hear his voice in the pleasant wind, and feel -his touch in the soft, warm sunshine. - -"But--but," said Bart, "he seems to be behind a curtain. I don't see -him." - -And then the teacher, her voice to Bart's ear playing a sweeter tune -than ever, told how God took away the curtain; how he came in the Lord -Jesus Christ; that the Saviour was the divine expression of God's love; -and men could see that love going about their streets, coming into their -homes, healing their sick, and then hanging on the cross that the world -might be brought to God. Bart had been told all this before, but -somehow it never got so near him. - -"What she says somehow gets into me," thought Bart, looking up into the -teacher's face. He thought he would like to ask her one question when -he was alone with her. The school was dismissed, and Bart lingered that -he might walk away with the teacher. - -"Could I ask you about something?" he said, trotting at her side and -lifting his queer, oldish face towards her. - -"Certainly; ask all the questions you want. I can't say that I can -answer them, but there's no harm in asking them." - -"Well, what am I in this world for?" - -He said it so abruptly that it amused Annie. - -"What are you in this world for?" - -"Yes'm. I don't seem to amount to much." - -Bart eagerly watched the face above him, that had suddenly grown -serious; for Annie was thinking of the little fellow's home--of its -unattractiveness, of the two old people there that seemed so -uninteresting, especially the grandfather, who, as Annie recalled him, -seemed to be only a compound of a whining voice, a gloomy face, a bad -cough, and a clumsy cane. Then she recalled the slighting way in which -she heard people speak of this odd little fellow, who seemed to be a -figure out of place in life's problem; one who seemed to run into life's -misfortunes, not waiting that they might run into him--one ill-adjusted -and awry. Well, what should she say? She thought in silence. Then she -stopped him, and looked down into his face. - -Bart never forgot it. It was as if all of heaven's beautiful angels she -had told about that day were looking at him through her face, and all of -heaven's beautiful voices were speaking in her tones. - -"Bart," she said, "the great reason why you are in this world is -because--God loves you." - -What? He wanted to think that over. - -"Because what?" he said. - -"Why, Bart," she said, "God is a Father--a great, dear Father." - -Bart began to think he was; but he had been getting his idea of God -through gran'sir's style of religion, and God seemed more like a judge -or a big police-officer--catching up people and always marching them off -to punishment. - -"God is a great, dear Father," the tuneful voice was saying, "and he -wants somebody to love him; and the more people he makes, the more there -are to love him, or should be, and so he made you. But oh, if we don't -love him, it disappoints and grieves him!" - -"Does it?" said Bart, thoughtfully, soberly. - -"When you are at home--alone, upstairs--you tell God how you feel about -it, just as you would tell your mother--" - -"Or teacher," thought Bart. - -"As you would tell your mother if she were on the earth." - -That day, all alone hi his diminutive chamber, kneeling by a little bed -whose clothing was all too scanty in cold weather, a boy told God he -wanted to love him. When Bart rose from his knees he said to himself, -"Now, I must try to love other people." - -He went downstairs. Gran'sir was lying on a hard old lounge, making -believe that he was trying to read his Bible, and at the same time he -was very sleepy. Bart hesitated, and then said,-- - -"Gran'sir, don't you--you--want me to get you a pillow and put under -your head?" - -"Oh, that's a nice little boy!" said the weary old grandfather, when his -head dropped on the soft pillow now covering the hard arm of the lounge. - -"And, gran'sir, I ain't much on readin'; but perhaps, if you'd let me, I -might read something, you know." - -"Oh, that's a dear little feller," said gran'sir, closing his eyes, so -old and tired. He had been trying to read about Jacob and the angels at -Beth-el; but the lounge was so tough that the feature of the story -gran'sir seemed to appreciate most sensibly was that Jacob slept on a -pillow of stones. I can't say how much of the story, as Bart read it, -gran'sir heard that day, for he was soon as much lost to the outside -world as tired Jacob was. He had, though, a beautiful dream, he -afterwards told granny. Yes; in his sleep he seemed to see the ladder -with its shining, silver rounds, climbing the sky, and on them were so -many angels, oh, so many angels! - -"And, granny," whispered gran'sir, "I was a little startled, for one of -them angels seemed to have Bartie's face. I hope nothin' is goin' to -happen, for I am beginnin' to think we should miss that little chap ever -so much." - - - - - V. - - _THE LIGHTHOUSE._ - - -"You say this is your last Sunday at Shipton. Sorry! We shall miss you -in the class," said Dave's new Sunday-school acquaintance, Mr. Tolman. - -"Thank you, sir," replied Dave; "but as this is only my second Sunday in -your class, you won't miss me much." - -"Oh yes, we shall. See here, David. There is going to be some company -at my house to-morrow night. Bring your sister round to tea." - -Dave and Annie were at Mr. Tolman's the evening of the next day; and who -was it Dave saw trying to shrink into one corner? A stout, fat man, -altogether too big for the corner. - -"He looks natural," thought Dave. - -At this point the man saw Dave. He had been looking very lonely, but -his face now brightened as if he had suddenly seen an old and valued -acquaintance. - -"Think you don't remember me!" he said, advancing toward Dave, and -extending a large brown hand shaped something like a flounder. Dave -thought at once of a lighthouse, a sand-bar, and an old schooner halting -on the bar. - -"Oh, the light-keeper, Mr. Tolman!" cried Dave. "You here?" - -"It is my uncle from Black Rocks," said the younger Mr. Tolman, stepping -up to this party of two. "Uncle Toby doesn't get off very often from -the light, and we thought he ought to have a little vacation, and come -and see his relatives." - -"My nephew James is very good," said Mr. Toby Tolman. "The last time I -saw you," he added, addressing Dave, "I put you on board that tug-boat." - -Dave dropped his head. - -"Oh, you needn't be ashamed of that affair. I didn't think at the time -you could be the cause of the mischief, and I've been told since who it -was that was to blame for it." - -Dave raised his head. - -"Fact is I've been a-thinking of you. Want a job, young man?" - -"Me, sir? I expect to go home to-morrow." - -"Got to return for anything special?" - -"Well, my visit is out." - -"Nothing special to call you home?" - -"Oh, I help father, and go to school when there is one." - -"Well," said the old light-keeper, fixing his eyes on the boy, "how -should you like to help to keep a lighthouse for three weeks?" - -"Me?" said Dave eagerly. - -"Yes, you. You know I have an assistant, Timothy Waters. He wants to -be off on a vacation for three weeks, and I must have somebody to take -his place. I want somebody who can work in there, sort of spry and -handy. Now, I think you would do. How should you like it?" - -"When do you want to know?" - -"The last of this week." - -"I will go home to-morrow and talk it over with the folks, and I can get -you an answer by day after to-morrow." - -"Yes, that will do." - -Dave went home, obtained the consent of his parents, and the boat that -brought Timothy Waters to Shipton to begin his vacation took back to the -lighthouse Dave Fletcher and his trunk. It was the light-keeper, Mr. -Toby Tolman, who brought the former assistant to Shipton, and then -accompanied Dave to Black Rocks. It was a mild summer day. The wind -seemed too lazy to blow, and the sea too lazy to roll. There were faint -little puffs of air at intervals, and along the bar and the shore the -low surf turned slowly over as if weary. The light-tower and its red -annex the fog-signal tower rose up out of one sea of blue into another -of gold, and then above this sea of sunshine rolled another of blue -again, where the white-sailed clouds seemed to be all becalmed. It was -low tide, and the light-keeper's dory brushed against the exposed masses -of the ledge, weed-matted and brown, on which the lighthouse rested. - -"This looks like home to me," said the keeper, when they had climbed the -ladder and gained the door in the fog-signal tower. When they entered -the light-tower the keeper detained Dave and said, "I want to tell you -something about my home here on the rocks. There, this tower is about -seventy feet high. It is built as strong as they can make stone -masonry. This is the first room. We keep various stores here. Do you -see this?" - -Mr. Tolman with his foot tapped a round iron cover in the floor and then -raised it. - -"Down here is the tank where we keep our fresh water." - -The iron cover went down with a dull slam; and then he pointed out -various stores in the room--vegetables, wood, coal, and a quantity of -hand-grenades (glass flasks filled with a chemical, to be used in -putting out fires). - -"How thick are the walls here, Mr. Tolman?" - -"Four feet here of stone, solid; and then there is an inner wall of -brick, foot and a half thick. Now we will go up into the kitchen. You -saw those hand-grenades of ours. Precious little here that will burn. -You see the stairways from room to room are of iron, and then every -floor has an iron deck covered with hard pine. Ah, my fire is still -in!" - -Yes, the kitchen stove had guarded well its fire, and the heat of the -room was tempered by a mild, cool draught of air that came through an -opened window from the flashing sea without. Besides a softly-cushioned -rocking-chair near the stove, there were three chairs ranged near a -small dining-room table, and their language was, "You will find a -welcome here." Clock, looking-glass, cupboard, lamp-shelf, and other -conveniences were in the room. - -"Let's take a peep at the next room," said the keeper. - -Again they climbed an iron staircase, and reached a bedroom. Besides a -single bed, there were a clothes-closet, three green chairs, a green -stand, a gilt-framed looking-glass, and on the wall several pictures of -sea-life. The floor was covered with oil-cloth, and directly before the -bed was a rag mat that had a very domestic look. - -"There--this is my room; and now we will go up into the assistant's, -your quarters. We will bring up your trunk directly," said the keeper. -This room was furnished like the keeper's, only it had two chairs, and -before the bed was a strip of woollen carpet. - -"I can put my trunk anywhere, I suppose, Mr. Tolman?" - -"Anywhere you please." - -"Mother gave me a few pictures, too, that she said I could stick up, to -make it look homelike." - -"Just what I like to have you do. Now for the watch-room." - -This was at the head of another iron stairway, and held a small table, a -library-case, a green chest, two chairs, and a closet for the keeping of -curtains that might be used in the lantern, and other useful apparatus. - -"This room is where we can sit and watch the lantern," explained the -keeper. - -"And what is this?" asked Dave, pointing at a weight that hung down from -the ceiling. - -"That weight? It is a part of the machinery that turns round the lens -in the lantern. Now, let us go up into the lantern." - -The lantern was a circular room. The walls were of iron, up to the -height of three feet, and cased with wood, and then there was a -succession of big panes of the clearest glass, making a broad window -that extended about all the lantern. In the centre was a lens of "the -fourth order," shaped like a cone, and consisting of very strong -magnifying prisms of glass. Within this lens was a kerosene-lamp. - -"There!" said Mr. Tolman; "all this tower of stone, all the arrangements -of the place, all the serving of the keeper and his assistant, all the -doing by day and the watching by night, is just to keep that little lamp -a-going. Put out the lamp at night, and you might just as well send the -keepers home and tear down the lighthouse." - -"It is not so big a lamp as I supposed." - -"No; that is a small lamp for so big a light as folks outside see. It -is this lens that does the work of magnifying." - -"Can I step outside, sir? I wanted to when we were down here that -night, but we did not have so good a chance for looking about." - -"Oh yes." - -Outside of the lantern was a "deck," about six feet broad, and -compassing the lantern. It was a shelf of stone covered with iron. - -"Good view here," said the keeper. - -"Yes; nothing to hide the prospect," replied Dave. "There is Shipton up -beyond the harbour, and there is the sea in the other direction." - -Only sea, sea, sea, to north, south, east--one wide, restless play of -blue water. - -"The wind must blow up here sometimes, Mr. Tolman." - -"Blow! That is a mild word for it; and in winter it is cold. It is no -warm job when we have to scrape the snow and ice off the lantern. Folks -outside must see, and it is our place to let them see." - -When the keeper and Dave returned to the kitchen, preparations for -dinner were started, and then Mr. Tolman said, "We have a few minutes to -spare, and I guess we will take up our boat." - -"Take it up?" - -"Well, if it should promise to be a quiet day I could moor it near the -light; but, of course, in rough weather, when everything is tumbling -round the rocks, I had better have it h'isted into a safe place. I'll -show you." - -"Isn't it going to be quiet?" asked Dave eagerly. "I'd like to see a -storm out here." - -"Better see it than feel it, I tell ye. I don't know but that it will -be fair," said the keeper, at the door of the fog-signal tower, looking -out upon the water, while a light breeze gently lifted and dropped the -thin gray locks on his brow. "May be fair, but still--still--I don't -know. A bit hazy in the no'th-east." - -"Oh, if it would storm!" said Dave enthusiastically. - -The keeper smiled at his eagerness, and said: "I think you'll have your -wish before you get through; and it's a tough place out here in a storm, -the wind howling round the light, the big breakers thundering and -smashing along the bar, the spray flying up to the lantern, or, if there -is a fog, the old fog-horn screeching dismally. What do you think of -it? That don't suit you, does it?" - -"Oh, splendidly!" - -"Well, we will get the boat up. You see we have 'tackle and falls' -right here at the door, rigged overhead, you see, and we can get up -'most anything. If you will go down and make the boat fast, we will then -raise her." - -Dave descended, attached the boat at her stern and bows to the suspended -tackle, and returned to the keeper's side. Then they pulled on the -ropes. The boat came readily up, and hung opposite the door of the -fog-signal tower. - -"Now we are all right," declared Dave. "This is a fortress where we -have a boat, and can go off if we wish, but no enemy can get to us." - -All this increased the keeper's pleasure in witnessing the eagerness of -Dave. At dinner the keeper rehearsed his duties, and added,-- - -"May not seem as if there was much to be done, but to keep everything in -good condition it takes some time, and then there may be fogs--oh my!" - -This made Dave, of course, none the less anxious to hear the big -breakers booming against the lighthouse, and as an accompaniment the -fog-horn moaning hoarsely. The keeper gave Dave his course of duties -during the day; and while they despatched dinner he told Dave also about -a heavy storm just "ten years ago that very day." And this only fired -up Dave's anxiety to see what the keeper termed "a howler." - -"Don't you feel lonely here sometimes, sir?" - -"Well, we get used to almost everything. I am only lonely when my -assistant is away; and if I am occupied, then loneliness don't bother me -much. I am generally pretty busy. By sunrise my light must be out in -the lantern. I must make a trip upstairs for that, any way. Then there -is breakfast. People's appetites are apt to be pretty good out here, -and sometimes it is no small job just to do the cooking. I believe in -living well--in having plenty to eat, and in having a variety. After -breakfast, first thing, Timothy and I have prayers--same as folks do at -home, you know. Then we look after the lantern. That takes time--to -trim the lamp, keep the lens clean, and see that the windows of the -lantern are polished bright. Then in the forenoon I do my -baking--bread, cake, and so on. Well, if the fog should set in, that -would upset other arrangements, and we must watch the fog-signal. Oh, -there is a lot to be done! Noon comes before one knows it. In the -afternoon I like to get a little time to read; but then it may be foggy, -or one must go to town, or perhaps the town may come to us. I have a -good many visitors in summer-time. That makes a pleasant change." - -"How do you manage at night?" - -"We relieve one another. One is on watch till twelve, and the other -takes his turn till sunrise. I will make it as easy for you as I can, -and--" - -"Oh, I can stand it." - -"Well, we will see. But speaking about daytime, one must make up then -for the sleep he loses at night. So you see the hours are filled up. I -read in the night considerable. I am going to propose one thing. You -will find some valuable books up in the library-case in the watch-room. -I want you to select one and read it. I have been astonished to see how -much I could read by keeping at it sort of steady, as we say; giving -myself a stint perhaps every day, and sticking to it. Hadn't you better -try it?" - -"I think I will." - -Dave noticed that the light-keeper was very particular to have prayers -each morning directly after breakfast, and then at some other time -during the day he would be likely to be bending over his Bible. It was -an impressive sight. The ocean might be rolling the heavy breakers -across the bar as if driving heavy, white-headed battering-rams toward -the land. Against the tower itself the ponderous billows would throw -themselves, and sweep in a crashing torrent between the light and -fog-signal towers. Within, in the sheltered kitchen, the light-keeper -would sit at his table bending over his Bible, his countenance at rest -as the shadow of God's great protecting promises fell over him. - - - - - VI. - - _FOG._ - - -"Here are some letters for you," said the light-keeper, returning from -Shipton one noon and handing Dave a package of letters. - -"This is a funny-looking one," thought Dave. "It is not written, but -printed. Somebody sent it that did not know how to write. Let me see -what it says:-- - - -"'DEAR DAVIE I THOUGHT I WOULD WRITE YOU A LITTLE AND SAY I AM WELL AND -HOPE YOU ARE GRANSIR IS BETTER BECAUSE I READ TO HIM HE SAYS I LIKE MY -TEACHER SHE IS YOUR SISTER SHE SAYS SHE MAY TAKE ME TO THE LIGHTHOUSE -AND I WOULD LIKE TO COME I SHALL PRAY FOR YOU WHEN THE STORMS COME AND -EVERY DAY YOUR TRUE FRIEND - -"'BARTHOLOMEW TRAFTON.'" - - -Dave was so much pleased with this communication that he read it to the -light-keeper. - -"Dave, I wish you would invite your sister and her friends to come down -here. Ask those boys who were with you in the schooner." - -"That would be pleasant. Thank you." - -"I will try to make it interesting for them." - -"Oh, I wish you would do one thing." - -"What is that?" - -"Tell us what you know about lighthouses." - -"Well, let me think. There is one thing I could do. I have in my -drawer an account of lighthouses I have written off at spare moments, -just to keep me busy, you know, and I could read that." - -"I think we would all like that very much." - -"All right; let us plan for a visit." - -"I think you have had some visitors since you have been here that you -did not plan for." - -"Yes, indeed; and they may come any time, just as your party surprised -me. Sometimes, though near me, they may not get to me. I was saying -the first day you came here it was the tenth anniversary of a great -storm. It was a foreign vessel, a Norwegian bark. The vessel struck on -the bar--" - -"Couldn't they see the light?" - -"The fog was very thick, so that they couldn't have got much warning -from the light. The first thing to do now in a fog, of course, is to -start the signal. But we had none then--only an old bell I used to -strike; but when the wind was to south'ard it carried away from the bar -the sound of the bell. This was a southerly storm, and such storms are -not likely to be long, but they may blow very hard while they do last. I -heard the storm roaring through the night; and when I looked out in the -morning, there was this vessel just on the bar! Oh, what a tumult she -was in! Such a raging of the waves all around that vessel! I always go -off to the help of people if I can reach them; but there was no reaching -that vessel with a boat. Yes, I could see them and they could see me in -the morning, when the fog lifted, but there was no getting from one to -the other. I could see them clinging to the rigging, hanging there as -long as the waves would let them. I would watch some immense sea--and -they roll up big in a storm, I tell ye--come rushing at the vessel, -rolling over it, completely burying the deck. After such seas some one -would be missing. I never want to see that sight again. There they were -dying, and I couldn't get anywhere near them! The vessel did not break -up at once. She was there the next day, and I went to her, and others -went, but we found nobody aboard. I think they saved part of her cargo; -but the waves pounded her up fearfully, and carried off many things of -her cargo. One by one they came ashore. It did touch me one day, when -I was down on the rocks fishing, near the lighthouse at low tide, to see -something floating on the water. 'Why, that is a box,' I said. We are -all curious, you know, and I wondered what was in that box. I went to -the lighthouse, got a long pole, and reached the box and brought it -ashore. I'll show it to you if you would like to see it." - -"I would, very much." - -"I have always kept it here, for it seems to belong to the lighthouse -rather than anywhere else. Here it is." - -He went to the closet in the kitchen, and reaching up to the highest -shelf, took down a box of sandalwood. It was an elaborately carved -piece of work, and had served among the articles for a lady's toilet. -When the light-keeper opened it Dave saw two handkerchiefs, a -hair-brush, a comb, and there was also a man's picture. Dave looked -with interest at this relic washed up out of the buried secrets of the -sea, and still keeping its own secret there in the light-keeper's -kitchen. - -"Did you ever get any clue to the ownership of this, Mr. Tolman?" asked -Dave. - -"Let me tell you of one strange thing that happened about a year ago. -One night I was very sure I heard a cry out on the bar. The waves make -so much noise that it is hard to hear anybody if they do shout; but -sometimes when the sea is still you can hear a call. Said I to Waters, -'Timothy, I hear a hollering.' Said he, 'I think I hear it myself. Let -us go to the door and listen.' We were both in the kitchen, you know. -'Twas the fore part of the evening, though dark. Sure enough, at the -door we could hear somebody shout. 'Timothy,' said I, 'that is a plain -case. Let's launch the boat.' So off we put. The person kept -hollering and we kept rowing. There on the bar we found a man. Crazy -he acted, and he couldn't tell much about himself--how he got there, or -where his boat was. He was not sober. On our way to the light what -should we run into but a boat. 'Here is the rest of him,' whispered -Timothy. We took him and his boat to the light. How we got him up the -ladder I don't know, but we tied a rope round him, and drew him, and -shoved him, and somehow got him into the lighthouse. The next morning -he was entirely sober. Of course he was very much ashamed, but he could -not give any account of himself, only that he had been in a boat and had -trouble. Well, for some reason I had that box down from the shelf that -morning he left, and I had been looking at it. He saw it. He started -as if the box had struck him. He stepped up to it softly, looked into -it, and said, with an amazed look as I ever saw on a person, -'Where--where--did you get it?' 'It floated from a wreck off here.' -'Anybody ever claim it?' 'Never,' I said; 'but I am ready to give it -up to any claimant.' 'Well,' said he, 'if anybody comes and claims it, -you give it up; but if not, don't part with it till you hear from me.' -I asked him what he meant; but he would make no explanation, only -repeating his request. He was very grateful for what we had done, and I -took the liberty to say in a proper way that he must take warning, or he -would be wrecked on a bar where there would be no saving. He burst into -tears, thanked me, said he knew he was a great fool, and left in his -boat. We watched him, and saw him row to a vessel lying at anchor in -the harbour. Then we guessed he had been ashore the day before in the -ship's boat, and got into mischief. I told Timothy we would find out -about the vessel; but a fog came up and kept us here. She slipped out -to sea as much a stranger as ever. Fishermen afterwards told us it was -a vessel that ran in for shelter. - -"From that day to this I have never heard about the man. Sometimes I -think it was a foreigner; again I fancy it is somebody at Shipton, but I -could not say. I am there very little to know about people; and Timothy -couldn't tell about it. He don't belong to Shipton. There is the box. -Pretty, isn't it?" - -Dave nodded a yes. - -"Mr. Tolman, could you tell the man if you should see him again?" asked -Dave. - -"Could I? yes, indeed." - -"How did he look? What was the colour of his hair, his eyes; and how -was he dressed?" - -"Now--you will think it strange--I can't tell any of his features or -what clothes he wore, and yet if I should see him I don't believe I -should miss him. I could tell him by the look of his eyes--a look that -somehow appealed to me--a look without hope. Often when at night I see -the froth on the bar in the moonlight, I seem to hear that man calling -to me, and I take it as a sign that he is still in a worse fix than if -on the bar. It is an awful curse, rum, and I am a sworn foe to it." - -Here the light-keeper placed the sandal-wood box again on its shelf, and -Dave turned to look out of the window near the kitchen table. - -"See here, Mr. Tolman; what's that?" - -"Where?" - -"Floating and curling over that point!" - -"Can't you guess?" - -"Looks like fog! Yes, I can see now plainly. Oh, can we start up the -fog-signal?" - -"Wait a while. When the fog is so thick that you can't see Breakers -P'int, then we start the fog-signal. That is the sign in that direction. -On the other side of the lighthouse it is Jones's Neck that must be -hidden. I guess both the P'int and the Neck will be covered this time. -I must start the fire in the engine and have everything ready, at any -rate. Let us go into the fog-signal tower." - -Dave was delighted. - -"I suppose, Mr. Tolman, people like to hear the signal?" - -"Yes, if in a fog. They want to know which way to go. Even fishermen -about here, who are supposed to know the way about the harbour, may be -bothered by the fog; but people just off for pleasure may be bothered a -good deal." - -"See here! Isn't the fog lifting round Jones's Neck, Mr. Tolman?" - -Dave was looking out of a window in the tower, and Mr. Tolman joined -him. - -"You are right; and Breakers P'int is clear too. We will hold on then, -have everything ready, you know, for the fog may shut down suddenly." - -Dave continued to look out of the window. - -"Coming again!" he cried to the light-keeper, who had kept up his fires -in the engine-room, but had gone for a few minutes to the kitchen. "Fog -is round Breakers Point and Jones's Neck!" - -Yes: like an immense gray sponge the mist had once more advanced, wiping -out the vessels slowly sailing into harbour, the far outlying points of -land, and now erased an islet called the Nub, mingling all in one -confusing cloud. - -"All right," said the light-keeper; "we will start the signal." - -There was the driving of a stout piston; there was the stirring of a big -wheel; there was the movement of other machinery; and there was -finally--"What a noise overhead!" thought the listening Dave. It seemed -as if five thousand bees all buzzing at once, twenty-five thousand -crickets all shrilly piping at once, and fifty thousand wood-sawyers all -sawing at once, had combined their noises and were forcing all through -the flaming fog-trumpet above. For ten seconds Dave held his fingers in -his ears. Then there was a blessed stillness, save as the play of the -machinery interrupted it. - -"What do you think of that?" asked Mr. Tolman, grinning broadly. "Some -lung power left in it yet." - -"Lung power! They can hear that down to the Cape of Good Hope. One is -enough for both sides of the ocean." - -"Want another? Time is 'most up. Here she goes!" - -She went. - -"Toot--buzz--boom--whiz--fizz-z-z--bim-m-m-m!" - -Among the breakers tumbling on the sandy shores, along the face of -weather-beaten island-edges, down amid the waves and up in the clouds -echoed the sharp, strong, fog-piercing, ear-cutting blast. And wherever -it went it said, "Of fog I warn-n-n-n-n!" for ten seconds. - -In one of the intervals of rest Dave remarked, "Now that must be kept up -as long as the fog lasts?" - -"Of course." - -"Doesn't it get tiresome?" - -"Well, that's how you take it. I was told of a lighthouse where the -signal was going twenty-one days." - -"Day after day! Just think of it!" - -"Well, there is this side of it: off on the water there is somebody -bewildered by the mist, perplexed day after day, it may be, and they -catch the sound of the signal. Oh, ain't that good news? That's what -makes me contented at it. I have sometimes wished I was a musician, and -could please others by my playing; but I tell you I have stood by this -old engine dark, rainy, foggy nights, and oh, I have been so happy -starting up and sending out this old whistle. There it is!" - -"Toot--buzz--boom--whiz--bim-m-m-m!" - -"Somebody heard that, you may believe, and somebody, too, more pleased -than if I had been a whole band of music, and had sent out just the -sweetest tune." - -The light-keeper stood by the tugging engine and wiped the perspiration -from his brow, and his big, rosy face was as happy as that of a -school-boy going off on a long vacation. - -"Hark! what is that? Sounds like a bell," said Dave. - -"It is the bell-buoy at Sunk Rock. We only hear that when the wind is -blowing off the sea." - -"Didn't hear it before." - -"Wind hasn't been just right to hear it loud. I have caught it since -you came; but then I am used to its sound, and can tell it easily." - -"I must see it." - -"Oh, we shall have a chance, I guess." - -The fog-signal had been shrieking away an hour, and Dave heard another -sound. - -"That isn't a bell I hear now," he said. - -"Well, no; that's a hollering." - -Was it a cry from the lighthouse tower or a cry outside of it? a cry -from what quarter? Dave looked out of a window near him. He could see -only fog above and waves below. - -"I will go down to the door and try to see who or what it is," said -Dave, "for there is that cry again." - -He descended to the door of the tower and looked down through the hole -in the platform. Then he saw a dory tossing in the water that now -flowed all about the tower, swashing against its iron walls. There was -a boy in the boat. He was not looking up, but clinging to a rope -stretched for purposes of mooring from the tower to a sunken rock forty -feet away. Steadying his boat by this rope, he was waiting for some -response to his repeated calls. - -"Hullo, there!" shouted Dave. - -The boy looked up, still grasping the rope. - -"That you, Dave?" - -"Yes. That you, Dick? Where did you come from?" - -"Yes, Dick Pray, and nobody else." - -"Won't you come up?" - -"Well, yes, I should like to, but the water is uneasy. Can't get out of -my boat." - -"Hold on; I will come down and help you." He stepped within the tower -and reported, "Mr. Tolman, this fog has brought somebody." - -"Don't wonder at it. Give him any help he needs." - -"I want a short rope." - -"There's one hanging on that nail." - -Dave took the rope, went to the door of the tower, and descended the -ladder. - -"Here, Dick! Take your painter and tie it to that mooring-rope, -allowing enough slack to bring your boat almost to the tower and yet not -touch it. There! if that length isn't right you can try it again. Now -catch this rope and make fast to the stern there. So! That's it! Now -I'll pull you in." - -Dave drew on his end of the rope, and pulled Dick's boat so near the -ladder that Dick could spring to it, and yet the boat itself was left to -swing in the waves while it could not strike the tower. - -"I'll just make fast my end of the rope, Dick, and we will go up the -ladder." - -"All right. Glad to get out of that old boat and go up with you." - -"Why, where under the sun and moon have you been?" - -"Me? Been camping out on the Nub." - -"You haven't!" - -"But I have." - -"That your tent over there?" - -"Mine and Sam Whittles's." - -"Tolman and I noticed it to-day for the first time. How long have you -been there?" - -"Long enough to eat you or Toby Tolman--you may draw lots for the -honour--if you don't give me some food." - -"Oh, we will soon give you that. Among other things I will give you -some fish. Got some splendid cunners, and I will divide with you." - -"Good! I could eat 'em raw. Hungry as a shark. Sam is hungrier. I -don't know as he will wait for me, but throw himself into the water and -go after the fish himself." - -"O Dickie, we will make you feel like a new being. Come in and see -Tolman. He is a splendid old fellow. Come in this way." - -The boys went up into the engine-room. - -"An old acquaintance, Mr. Tolman," said Dave. - -"I see, I see," replied the light-keeper, recognizing Dick as one of the -schooner party. - -"Whiz--bim--fizz--" - -"It sounded splendid out at Shag Rocks," shouted Dick to the -light-keeper. - -"You been there?" inquired Mr. Tolman. - -"Yes; and this old fog came up and confused me, and I didn't know where -I was, and I heard the signal and I put for it," said Dick. - -"Out there fishing?" - -"Yes, sir; or--I wanted to fish, but didn't catch a fin." - -"Shag Rocks you went to?" - -"Yes, sir; two ledges with a strip of sand between them." - -"Oh, those are 'Spectacle Rocks,' as the fishermen say. They look like -a pair of spectacles. You wouldn't catch much there. Shag Rocks are to -the nor'ard." - -"Well, I'm willing they should stay there." - -"Next time, you come here. Splendid chance off this very ledge; Black -Rocks, as we call them." - -"That would be wise, I think." - -"Well, make yourself at home.--Dave, you give him something to eat." - -"I thought I would let him have some of those cunners to take with him." - -"So do, but give him something now.--And you don't want to go back in -this fog?" - -"Well, I'd rather have clear weather if I have got to find the Nub," -said Dick. - -The fog, though, refused to clear up that day, and Dick remained all -night. - -"I pity Sam," he told Dave; "but he has got a teapot, and he must live -on that till morning. I'll give him a surprise to-morrow, I tell you. -I will throw my line into the water off these rocks here, and carry to -camp a string of fish worth having. I'll open Sam's eyes for him." - -Dick, though, overslept his intended hour of rising. It was Dave who -came rushing into the assistant-keeper's room, where Dick had been -sleeping, and he cried, "Dick, Dick! there is a furious shouting for -you. Two men and a young fellow are down in a boat at the foot of the -tower, and want you." - -"I'll be there directly," said Dick, springing out of his bed. He -dressed quickly, and rushed down to the door of the signal-tower. -Looking below, he exclaimed, "That you, Sam Whittles?" - -"Yes. Where have you been? Didn't sleep a wink last night. Thought -you were drowned and everything else. Got these two fishermen who came -along to pull me here in their boat. Come, boy, come home!" - -"Fury!" said Dick in his thoughts. "Won't--won't you come up?" he asked -aloud. "I was going to surprise you, take you some fish, and so on." - -"Fish!" said Sam contemptuously; "these men will sell it to me by the -acre." - -"Squar mile, ef he wants it," said one of these piscatory individuals, -looking up and grinning. - -"Won't you all come up?" asked Dave Fletcher. - -"Can't, thank you," said Sam. "Just throw that Jonah overboard, and we -will go home." - -"Jonah" said it was "too bad," and stole down the ladder, feeling worse -than on the day he returned in the runaway schooner. - - - - - VII. - - _THE CAMP AT THE NUB._ - - -Two days later the light-keeper gave Dave a holiday, that he might spend -a day at the Nub. Dick Pray came after him, and as he rowed off from -the lighthouse he called out to the keeper, who stood in the tower door, -"Don't worry about your assistant. I will bring him home after dinner. -Get here by four." - -The keeper nodded his head. He said to himself, "May be; but if I don't -see a boat starting off from the Nub by a quarter of four, I shan't -leave it to you to bring him, but go myself for him. You are great on -what you are going to do; I like the kind that does." - -It was a pleasant boat-ride to the Nub. - -"Welcome!" shouted several young men in chorus as Dick's dory neared the -shore of the Nub. They stood on a broad, flat stone, for which the -rock-weed had woven a brown mat, and on the crown of the ledge behind -them rose a tent tipped with a dirty flag. - -"Hurrah!" responded Dick. - -"Hurrah!" shouted Dave. - -"I thought, Dick," said Dave, "only Sam Whittles was here." - -"Oh, these fellers came down last night. Just to spend a couple of -days, you know." - -"Who are they?" - -"Oh, Jimmy Dawes, I believe, and there's Steve Pettigrew and a Keese -Junkins." - -Dave's feelings of like and dislike were very quick in their operation, -and he now said to himself, "Don't fancy those specimens!" - -They were showily rather than tastefully dressed, strutted about with a -self-important air, and their talk was loud, coarse, and slangy. - -"Who is that little fellow?" asked Dave, noticing a small boy in the -rear of the tent. - -"Oh, that is a kind of servant they brought down with them. He came -down, and waits on them just for his board. He is a queer chap, and -makes fun for us all. We call him Dovey. Don't know what his real name -is. Splendid place here for camp!" - -"Tolman doesn't like it; says you can't get on or off easy." - -"O Dave, Tolman is an old fogey. But here we are." - -The boat was bumping against the landing-rock, and Dick and Dave -disembarked amid a chorus of "How are ye?" "Step ashore!" and other -friendly salutations. So cordial were these that Dave's dislike was put -to sleep, and he said to himself, "They are pleasant. Good-hearted, I -daresay." - -The tent within was an assortment of bedding, camp-chests, old clothes, -and provisions, all mixed up in great confusion. Dave thought the -outside of the tent would be more agreeable than the inside, which was -clouded with tobacco smoke. He took a seat without, and looked off upon -the sea. It was a vivid summer day. All the colouring of nature was -very bright and sharp. The sky was very blue; the clouds were very -white; the water was very dark, and the foam of the breakers white as -the flakes scattered by the storms of January. Dick and the others were -discussing plans for dinner. As Dave sat alone, watching the white -sails slowly drifting across the distant sea, a light hand was laid on -his shoulder by some one who had stepped up behind him. It was not a -big, coarse hand, but a gentle pressure such as a child might make. - -"Oh, it is the boy Dick told about," thought Dave; "it's that Dovey." -He looked up, and to his surprise there was Little Mew! - -"Why, Bartie, you down here?" exclaimed Dave, turning and looking with -interest at the small, twisted features of Bartholomew Trafton. - -"Yes; and I am glad to see you. Did you get my letter?" - -Bart had seated himself beside Dave, and rested his hand on Dave's knee -as if he were a little boat gladly tying up to a friendly pier. - -[Illustration: "Bart seated himself beside Dave and rested his hand on -his knee." _Page 97_.]] - -"Yes, I got your letter, and it was a very nice one. There is a party, -too, coming down to the lighthouse, and I thought you might be in it. -My sister will be one, I expect." - -"Teacher?" - -"Yes; and Mr. James Tolman, my teacher when I was in the school, is -going to bring them." - -"Oh, I wish I could go. I don't like it here." - -As he spoke he turned his head and looked about as if to make sure that -no one heard him save Dave. - -"Well, how did you come here?" - -"Reese Junkins," said Bartie, again looking back. "He lives near us. He -came to the house and told gran'sir and granny they wanted a boy to go -with them and just wait in the tent, and he would look after me, and I -might like it. But I don't like it." - -Here if his eyes had been straight, and Dave had followed their glance, -he would have noticed that Bartie was looking at a basket of bottles -near a rear corner of the tent. - -"I don't like to be with such people; they make too much noise." - -He bravely concealed the fact that they made fun of him, though his soul -was vexed and torn by their unkind jokes. - -"Well, you know Dick." - -"Yes; but he has forgotten me. He only saw me that day." - -That day meant the time of the rescue from the water. Dave looked into -the face turned trustingly toward his own. - -"Don't you worry, Bartie; I will look after you." - -The boy looked up so gratefully, and the hand on Dave's knee pressed -harder. The little boat rejoiced to have found such good moorings. - - ---- - -About half-past three Dave said to Dick, "I think I must be going, if -you can row me across. You know I said I would be back by four, and I -shall be needed at the light." - -"All right," replied Dick. - -"Going?" called out Sam. "Don't hurry." - -"Thank you; but I think I must be starting," said Dave. - -"Don't go!" - -This last was a timid, pitiful voice. - -Dave turned, and there was Little Mew. - -"Oh, I must go, Bartie. You see I said I would go back this afternoon, -and the keeper will look for me at the light." - -"Oh take me!" he begged aside. - -"You really want to go--really, Bartie?" - -"Oh yes; I'll ask them." - -Bart turned to Dick and Sam, and asked if he could go to the lighthouse. - -"We have no objection," they said. - -"Very well," said Dave, who saw the place was a prison for the little -fellow. - -But what did it mean that Steve, Billy, and Reese leaned against the -boat, and looked sullen as a fog-bank on the horizon? - -"You can't have this boat!" muttered Steve. - -"But it's one I borrowed," shouted Dick angrily. "Hands off! This -fellow is my company, and he shall be treated as he ought to be." - -"We will row him over ourselves in the morning, or--or--maybe--we will -spill him out half-way across. Ha! ha!" - -Billy's tone was sarcastic and offensive. - -"No, you won't!" said Dave, who, indignant beyond the power to quietly -state his feeling, had remained silent. "Somebody's coming after me." - -"What?" said Reese in amazement, looking toward Black Rocks. - -"Who's a-coming?" - -They all looked off and saw a dory advancing from the direction of the -lighthouse. - -"That's Tolman, the light-keeper!" explained Dick. - -"Who cares for Tolman, the light-keeper?--Boy," said Billy Dawes, -turning to Dave and shaking a dirty fist insultingly, "we don't want -anything to do with you." - -"You may be glad to have my help," replied Dave. - -"No help from babies. Remember that," said Billy. - -Dave's face was red with wrath. What would he do? He was in no danger, -for close at hand was Toby Tolman, a champion of no mean size, and the -rowdies stupidly gazed at him rowing his boat with all the ease of a -strong, skilled oarsman. - -"All ready!" exclaimed Dave, advancing to meet the light-keeper's boat. -"Good-bye, Dick." - -"Oh--oh--take me!" sobbed Bart. - -"What does that booby want?" asked Reese. - -"He wants to go to the lighthouse," explained Sam. - -"Well, let him go," replied Reese. "He has been a bother ever since he -came." - -With what joy Bart's small legs wriggled over the side of the keeper's -dory! - -"This little fellow, in whom I am interested, wants to go, if you will -let him," said Dave to the light-keeper; "and he can go to Shipton with -the party expecting to come down, you know, to visit us." - -"All right; and tumble in yourself, Dave." - -"Here I am!" replied Dave. "Let me push off!" - -Toby Tolman's boat was quickly rising and falling with the sea that -rocked about the Nub, and the departure was watched in an amazed, -ignoble silence by the three rowdies leaning against Dick's boat. - -"I am so much obliged to you for coming," said Dave to the keeper, -"though I did not mean to trouble you. Things were rather squally at -the Nub, and you came just in time. I will tell you about it." - -When Dave had given his story, the light-keeper, resting on his oars, -exclaimed, "There! I guessed as much. I didn't feel easy about you. -That Dick is a well-meaning boy, I don't doubt; but when I found out -that Sam Whittles was with him, I guessed what kind of a camp they would -have at the Nub, and it seems my guess was about right.--And this little -lamb?" - -Bart's eyes brightened at this pitying title; the appellatives bestowed -upon him had generally been of a different nature. - -It was a happy party that went into the lighthouse after the trip from -the Nub. - -"Oh, isn't this nice!" cried Bart, as he entered the kitchen. The sense -of peaceful, safe seclusion, the warm fire in the kitchen stove, above -all, the protecting friends near him, made the place seem like--Bart -whispered to himself what he thought it must be like--"heaven!" - -When he thought of the Nub he shuddered. - -What a happy boy it was that tumbled into the bed where the keeper told -him he could sleep that night! Dave added to his happiness by an -acknowledgment made. "Bartie," he whispered. - -"What, Davie?" - -"I owe you a good deal for stopping me at the dinner at the Nub." - -"Stopping you?" - -"When I didn't think, and lifted that glass, you know." - -"Oh, but you wouldn't have touched it." - -"If you had not been there, Bart, I don't know what might have -happened." - -"Oh, I am sure you would have come out all right," shouted confidently -this diminutive mentor. And yet as he was falling asleep that night, -hushed by the sound of the waves musically breaking against the walls of -the lighthouse, a thought came to him and steeped his soul in comfort, -that as Dave might have yielded, he--just Little Mew--might have been of -some use, and so not for nought had God sent into the world this puny -little fellow. - - - - - VIII. - - _VISITORS._ - - -Into the kitchen of the old lighthouse they came trooping the next -day--Annie Fletcher, with all her winning vivacity; Jimmy Davis and his -sister Belle, Dab and John Richards, and May Tolman, with her black, -lustrous eyes, in which diamonds seemed to be dissolving continually (so -Dave thought). May Tolman was the light-keeper's granddaughter. Then -there was Mr. James Tolman, who came as skipper of the sail-boat -bringing the party. Dave and Bart joined them at the door of the -fog-signal tower; and to what a scampering, laughing, singing, and -shouting did the gray stone walls listen as this flock of young people -hurried in! Behind all was the gray-haired keeper; but no heart was -lighter than his that day. Unobserved he went to a window through which -blew the cool, sweet, strong air from the sea, and he silently thanked -God for the gift of youth renewed that day in his own soul and lifting -him on wings, so that he too wanted to sing and shout, to race up and -down the iron stairs, to clap his hands jubilantly, as from the parapet -around the lantern he saw the breakers foam below and the white -sea-gulls soar up and then down on strong, steady wing. - -"Yes, bless God, I am still young--and ever shall be," thought the old -light-keeper. Ah, he had renewed his youth long ago at the fountains of -spiritual life, in the drinking of whose waters the soul becomes -perennial in a new sense. - -"Now, what shall I do for all these young folks?" he said to himself. -"I will certainly do whatever I can." - -He showed them the lighthouse from storeroom to lantern, and then he -carried them into the engine-room of the fog-signal tower and explained -all the machinery there. - -"_If_--if--we could only hear one toot!" exclaimed Annie Fletcher. - -"Maybe the fog will come," replied Toby Tolman. - -"Oh, if it would!" said Annie; and--it didn't. - -"Too bad," everybody said. - -"What else can I do?" wondered the light-keeper. Dave reminded him of -one thing. - -"Oh yes," the keeper replied. "Well, get them all together in the -kitchen." - -There clustered, the keeper told them, if they would excuse it, he would -by request read them something about lighthouses. - -"Don't expect much, though," he warned them, as he lifted his spectacles -and adjusted them to his sight. "I have written this off at different -times, perhaps in the evening when I have been watching, or in a storm -when I could catch a little rest from work, or when I felt a bit lonely -and wanted something to occupy me. I won't read all I have got, only -what I think will interest. I first speak of ancient lighthouses." - -Hemming vigorously several times, blushing modestly behind his -spectacles in the consciousness that the world was summoning him forth -to be a lecturer, he then began:-- - -"I suppose the first lighthouses were very simple--that is, they were -not lighthouses at all, but men just built big fires and kept them -burning at points along an ugly shore, or to show where a harbour was. -Not long ago I was looking at a picture of a lighthouse doing work in -our day and generation in Eastern Asia. It looked like a structure of -wood. It probably had on top a hearth of some kind of earth, for there -a fire was burning away. Not far off was the water. That looked -primitive. - -"If one turns to Rollin's 'Ancient History,' he will find in the first -volume an interesting account of an old lighthouse, and it was so -wonderful they called it one of the seven wonders of the world. It was -built by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and he laid out eight hundred -talents on it. One estimate of the value of this sum would bring it -pretty well up to L180,000. As it stood on an island called Pharos, -near Alexandria, the tower had the name of the island. That has given a -name to like towers. In French, I am told, the word _phare_ means -'lighthouse.' In Spanish, _faro_ means 'lighthouse.' In English, too, -when we say a pharos, we know, or ought to know, what it means. I can -see how useful this old lighthouse may have been. On its top a fire was -kindled. Alexandria was in Egypt, and the city is standing to-day, as -we all know. It had at that time a very extensive trade, and as the -sea-coast there is a dangerous one, it was very important that the ships -should have some guide at night. I can seem to see the old craft of -those days plodding along, the sailors wondering which way to go, when -lo, on Pharos's lofty tower blazes a fire to tell them their course. - -"The architect of this tower was Sostratus, and there was an inscription -on the tower said to have read this way: 'Sostratus, the Cnidian, son of -Dexiphanes, to the protecting deities, for the use of sea-faring -people.' His master, Ptolemy Philadelphus, was thought to have been -very generous because he allowed the putting of Sostratus's name in -place of his own. But Sostratus's name seems to have been put there by -a trick, and it was finally found out. Sostratus cut in the marble this -inscription that had his name; but what did he do but cover it with -plaster! In the lime he traced the name of the king. How pleased -Ptolemy must have been to see his name there! The lime, though, crumbled -finally, and the king's name crumbled with it, and the tricky -architect's inscription came out into notice. This lighthouse was built -about three hundred years before Christ. - -"In later years the tower of Dover Castle was used as a lighthouse. It -was called Caesar's Altar. Great fires of logs were kept burning on the -top. This was before the time of the Conquest, so called in English -history. Then at the end of the sixteenth century a famous lighthouse a -hundred and ninety-seven feet high was built at the mouth of the Garonne -in France. - -"About fourteen miles off Plymouth are the Eddystone Rocks. They are -very much exposed to south-western seas. One light-builder was -Winstanley, and he was at his work four seasons, finishing in 1698. The -lighthouse was eighty feet high. Made stouter and carried higher -afterward, it was almost a hundred and twenty feet high. It stood until -November 20, 1703. A very fierce blow of wind occurred then, and the -tower was wrecked by the storm. Two grave mistakes were made. Its -shape was a polygon, and not circular. Waves like to have corners to -butt against, and these should therefore be avoided. It was highly -ornamented for a lighthouse, and ornaments are what winds and waves are -fond of. It gives them a chance to get a good grip on a building and -bring it down.--In 1706 one Rudyerd thought he would try his hand, and -he did much better. The tower was built principally of oak; yet when -finished it stood for forty-six years, fire bringing it down in 1755. -Its form commended it, for it was like the frustum of a cone, circular, -and was without fancy work for the waves to take hold of.--In 1756 -Smeaton began to build at Eddystone his famous tower. He was the first -engineer who built a sea-tower of masonry and dovetailed the joints. -The stones averaged a ton in weight. He reduced the diameter of the -tower at a small height above the rock. He reasoned about the -resemblance of a tower exposed to the surf and an oak tree that faces -the wind. That has been shown not to be good reasoning; and looking at -the shape of his tower, I should say the idea would not stand fire--or -in this case water; for if at a small distance above the rock you reduce -the diameter of the tower very much, it gives the waves a good chance to -crowd down on the sides of the tower. However, Smeaton's tower stood a -good many years. Its very weight enabled it to offer great resistance -to the waves, and weight is one thing we must secure hi a tower, -avoiding ornament and all silly gingerbread work. In 1882 a new tower -was built in place of Smeaton's." - -The light-keeper then gave some details of our lighthouse service. His -paper deeply interested his auditors. - -Subsequently Annie Fletcher asked, "What is that ringing like the sound -of a little church-bell?" - -"Then your ears were quick enough to catch it?" replied the keeper. -"The window, too, is up, and so you could hear it. That is a bell-buoy -at a bad ledge off in the sea." - -"A bell-buoy?" asked Annie. - -"Yes. It is a frame from whose top is suspended a bell. The bell is -fixed, while the tongue, of course, is movable. The buoy floats on the -water--fastened, you know, to the rocks beneath; and as the waves move -the buoy the bell moves with it, and rings also--like a cradle rocking!" - -"The buoy is the cradle, and the bell is the baby in it," suggested -Dave. - -"And waves are the mother's hand rocking the cradle," added May Tolman. - -"Mother's hand--that is, the ocean--is pretty rough out there -sometimes," said the light-keeper. "In a storm, when the wind brings -the sound this way, the baby cries pretty loud." - -"It squalls," declared Dave. - -"I'd like to see that bell-buoy," said Johnny Richards. - -"Should you?" replied the keeper. "Well, the sea is smooth, and we can -all go easily in two boats.--James, you manage one, and I'll cap'n the -other. It won't take more than twenty minutes to row there." - -The two boats now commenced their journey. - -The two boats from the lighthouse were quickly at the bell-buoy. It was -a bell hung in a frame, which was swung by the waves. It was an object -of deep interest to the visitors, and they lingered about it, and then -rowed back to the lighthouse. - - - - - IX. - - _THAT OPEN BOOK._ - - -Toby Tolman, keeper of the light at Black Rocks, sat by the kitchen -stove in this lighthouse on the frothing, stony rim of the sea. He -liked the seclusion of this kitchen in the strong rock tower. He liked -to hear the steady beating of the clock--"tick, tick, tick, tick." He -liked the feeling, too, of the warm fire, and especially on this cool, -windy day. True it was August, but then the wind was blowing from the -north-west as if from an ice-floe up in Alaska, and the air was chilly. -As he glanced out of either of the two windows--the deep recessed -windows in the kitchen--he saw a cold, angry sea broken up into little -waves, each seeming to carry a white snow-flake of the size of the crest -of the wave. The distant ships, too, had a cold look, as if they also -were snowflakes. - -"A cool day," thought the light-keeper; "and the fire feels good." - -While he was in the kitchen Dave was up in the watch-room, hunting in -the little library for a history he meant to read, in accordance with a -plan suggested by the keeper, "a little every day, and to keep at it." - -Mr. Tolman had a book in his lap--"The best book in the world," he said -to himself. It was his big-print Bible, and especially did he rejoice -in that sense of protection, its promises give on days like this, when -he heard the wind rushing and storming at the window, suggestive of the -wild tempests that might blow any hour. - -Just this moment the keeper was not reading. He was thinking, and the -Bible was the occasion of his meditation about Dave Fletcher. - -"I don't see Dave reading his Bible much," he said to himself; "and I -don't believe he cares very much about prayer--acts that way, at any -rate. I should like to help him; but how?" - -He called Dave before his mind, this brown-haired, blue-eyed boy, with -his quiet manners and methods, but, as the keeper put it, "loaded with a -lot of grit." - -"Yes, I should like to help that boy," continued the keeper in his -thoughts. "I would like to influence him to be a Christian; but how, I -wonder? He is one of that kind of self-reliant chaps you feel that he -had rather find out a thing himself than be told of it. He doesn't want -me, I know, to tell him all the time about his duty, and yet--yet--I -should like to influence him, and I wonder how?" - -Of course, there was one's example first of all. - -"Try to do what I can here," thought the keeper. "I might speak to him, -though I don't want to run the thing into the ground. Well, I shall be -guided." - -The thought came to him, "Now there is a bit of a thing I can do which -certainly won't do harm." - -The thought was just to leave his Bible open on the kitchen table. - -"Perhaps he may see a verse," thought the keeper, "and it will set him -to thinking." - -After that on the table would lie the keeper's Bible turned back to some -impressive chapter. Dave would have been uneasy if in contact with some -styles of religion, but such a kindly natured, sunny, generous, and -tolerant soul as Toby Tolman he could not find disagreeable. Toby's -religion was never obtrusive, never unpleasantly in the way of people; -though always prominent, out in open sight, it was the prominence of the -sunshine, of a bird's happy singing, of nature on a spring morning. -Dave felt it, but he was a silent lad over important subjects. He was -different from his sister Annie. If her soul were stirred by any -profound emotion, she must in some way give expression to it. Dave, -though, would look very serious and continue silent. His mother, who -knew him so well, said that Dave felt most when he said the least, and -the hours of his greatest stillness were to her the surest signs of an -intense activity within. - -"Dave is fullest when he seems to be emptiest," Mrs. Fletcher would say. -Because now-a-days at the light he would often have long seasons of -silence, was it any sign of mental occupation? - -"I don't think I understand that boy yet," was Toby Tolman's thought. -"He is thinking about something, I know." - -It was a day near the close of Dave's stay at the lighthouse that the -keeper said in the morning,--"Beautiful day! Everything just as calm! -It seems as if it would stay so always, but it won't." - -How the sea might rock and roar in twenty-four hours! The lighthouse -was very peaceful. The morning's work was despatched promptly, and the -tower was very quiet. With any rocking, roaring sea would come a change -in the life of the tower. There would be hurrying feet, and the -fog-signal would shriek out its sharp, piercing warning. - -The flow of life in nature, though, out on the sea, up in the sky, was -undisturbed all that day, and in the tower of the fog-signal the -machinery stirred not, while the light breeze playing around the mouth -of the fog-trumpets aroused no answering blast. It was peaceful on the -sea and in the tower. And yet in the light-keeper's own bosom it seemed -that afternoon as if an ocean tempest had been evoked and was suddenly -raging. About three Dave, who chanced to be in the storeroom of the -tower, heard a voice outside. - -"There's some one down at the foot of the ladder," thought Dave. "I -will see who it is." - -He went to the door of the signal-tower and looked down. - -"Ho! that you, Timothy? Coming back?" said Dave. - -Down in a boat lightly resting on the smooth, glassy water was Toby -Tolman's assistant, Timothy Waters. Dave knew that Timothy was coming -back very soon, and he thought that Timothy might have concluded to -anticipate the date appointed for his return and resume work now. - -"Not just yet," replied Timothy. "Get the cap'n soon as you can. I -won't come up. Spry, please." - -The keeper was quickly at the door. - -"What's wanted, Timothy? Coming up, are you not?" - -"Wish I could, cap'n, but I want to take you to town. Your--is--very--" - -The sea heaved just then sufficiently to disturb the speaker's balance -and also to interfere with his message. There he stood, trying to -steady himself by the help of the mooring-rope and then looking up -again. - -"What? who?" asked the keeper. - -"Why, your granddarter May, cap'n," replied Timothy. "She is very sick. -They don't know that she will live. She has been begging to see you, -and if you could come a few hours I will get you back again all right -afterwards." - -"I will be with you right off." The keeper turned to Dave: "You heard -that. It's ugly news. Now if I go, can't you light up and watch till -half-past eight? I'll be back, sure. Don't worry. It will be a quiet -night; no sign just yet of any change in the weather." - -"Oh yes, Mr. Tolman; that is all right. You go. I would if I were you. -I will look after things. I can handle them." - -"I think you can; and I shall be obleeged to you. My, my! this is -sudden. Wasn't looking for May's sickness." - -He was quickly in the boat with Timothy Waters; and then Dave watched -the two men pulling stoutly on their oars and making quick progress -landward. The boat turned the corner of a bluff projecting into the -harbour and disappeared. Dave stepped back into the lighthouse, and sat -down beside the kitchen stove. It was very peaceful there. The clock -ticked as usual on the wall; and on the table, lying open, as if laid -down a moment ago by the keeper, was his Bible. Dave glanced at the -opened pages a moment. As his eyes slipped down the line of verses he -noticed such assurances as these:-- - -"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under -the shadow of the Almighty.... Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror -by night.... For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee -in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash -thy foot against a stone." - -He lingered a moment looking at these passages, and then turned away. - -"I will go upstairs," he said, "into the lantern, and make sure that -everything is ready for the lighting at sunset. That's sudden about May -Tolman," he began to reflect. "Why, I seem to see her going up and down -these stairs the day she was here, so full of life." - -He could hear her voice; he could see her black, glowing eyes, that had -a peculiar fascination for Dave. - -"Sorry," he said. "That's real sudden. Things do happen quick in this -life sometimes." - -Dave felt unusually sober that day. If he had told all his thoughts to -any one, he would have confessed to a singular soberness of feeling for -some time. - -He had been shut up for several weeks with a man whose religion, without -any pretence, any show, and any peculiarities, controlled his life, and -came prominently to the surface in everything. Dave felt his sister's -religious influence at home; but there were influences interfering with -it and partly neutralizing it. Dave Fletcher's mother was too busy, she -assured herself, to attend to religion; and Dave's father declared--also -to himself--that he did not "feel the need of it." "I am as good as my -neighbours; and I guess that will do," he said. He quoted in his -thoughts Dave's lack of interest, saying, "There is Dave, good boy; and -he takes his father's view of things." - -But here at the lighthouse Dave declared that he was "cornered." Here -was a simple, humble, unselfish life living in communion with his -heavenly Father, bringing that presence down to that lonely tower in the -sea, and filling it, and surrounding the boy who was the light-keeper's -companion. No neutralizing associations here. - -"It sets me to thinking," declared Dave, as he climbed the successive -stairways to the lantern the afternoon of the keeper's absence. "And -May Tolman's sickness--that is sudden. Nothing is certain. Well, we -must just look after matters right around us. One can't give his -thoughts to all these possibilities of accident. I'll just remember -that I am a keeper of a lighthouse." - -Keeper of a lighthouse! The moment he uttered this thought to himself -there settled down upon his shoulders a new and serious weight of -responsibility. He began to realize that for several hours he must carry -the burden of a keeper's duties. He must look after the fog-signal, if -a dusky veil of mist should suddenly be dropped from the sky and curtain -off both the sea and the land. If there should be any accident upon the -sea in the neighbourhood of the lighthouse, where the keeper might be -expected to give any aid, Dave must render that help. When night came, -or sunset rather, he must light the lamp in the lantern, and he must -watch it, and see that for the sake of the many vessels upon the sea -this light burned with steady lustre. Upon just a boy's shoulders how -heavy a care seemed to be pressing down! - -"I can stand it," he said, in pride and confidence. The very pressure of -the responsibility aroused within him a corresponding measure of -strength. However, it did not lessen the shadow of that sober thinking -in which he often walked nowadays. - -"I'll take that history I am reading," he said on his return from the -lantern, "and get over a good number of pages to-day." - -He read until supper-time, but somehow his thoughts did not seem to stay -on his book. They were like birds on the telegraph wires along the -railroad track--flying off and then alighting again, only to lift their -wings and beat the air in another flight. - -"A long afternoon!" he said finally, laying down his book. "I am glad -it is tea-time." - -How lonely the kitchen began to seem! The rattle of his knife and fork, -the clink of his spoon, the occasional clatter of dishes, usually such -pleasant sounds to a hungry man, now sounded lonely and harsh. - -"Don't like eating by myself," declared Dave. "Glad tea is over. Wonder -when Mr. Tolman will be here?" He looked at the clock and said, "I -believe he thought he should be back by half-past eight. I wonder how -May Tolman is getting along. Poor girl!" - -The sun seemed that night a longer time than usual in setting, as if it -were an invalid, and there must be a very deliberate and lengthy -bundling up in yellow blankets. - -"At last the sun is about going down," said Dave. He was now up in the -lantern, match in hand. He looked off through the broad windows of -glass upon the surface of the sea, growing calmer and more shining in -the west; but in the east its lustre had faded out, and there was a -great expanse of dull, heavy, lead-like shades. Two fishing-boats were -creeping into harbour. The surf on the bar rolled lazily, as if it -would like to go to sleep, even as the sun. A schooner was creeping -along the channel, its sails hanging in loose, flapping folds. - -"There goes the sun!" thought Dave, watching the disappearance of the -last embers of its fires below a blue hill. He turned with relief to -the lamp, removed its chimney, kindled its wick, replaced the chimney, -and then carefully adjusted the flame. - -"There--that is done! Now do your duty, and burn all right," was Dave's -direction. Rising, he looked away, and saw that in other lighthouses -their keepers had kindled guiding tapers, burning slender and silvery in -the still lingering daylight. - -"Everything here is all right, I believe," said Dave, looking about the -lantern. "Holloa! what is that up there in the corner? A cobweb? -Guess I must take it down. Don't want the window to have that thing up -there. Can't reach it. I will get a little box down in the watch-room. -That will elevate me." - -When he had brought the box, standing on it he saw that the web was on -the outside of the lantern, and he went without to remove the film from -the glass. - -"There!" he said, reaching up to the corner of the window as he stood on -the box. "Come down here. Don't have cobwebs on the windows of this -lantern." - -He now turned about, and chanced to face the tall red pipes projecting -from the roof of the signal-tower with their trumpet-shaped mouths. - -"Is one of those pipes damaged?" wondered Dave. "Afraid so. I must take -a sharper look at that." - -At the foot of the railing of the parapet he placed the box, and from -that elevation, leaning his arms on the railing, inspected as closely as -he could the fog-signal. This parapet for timorous people was an ugly -spot. When the wind blew hard it was not easy to maintain one's footing -outside the lantern. One could cling to the railing, which was firm, but -it consisted only of an iron bar resting on upright iron rods three feet -apart. There was no danger of a fence-break, but the gaps between the -iron rods were wide and ugly, and if one should chance to drop on the -smooth stone floor and just tip a little--over--toward--the--edge--ugh! -One did not like to think of that fall down--down--into the sea--perhaps -upon the Black Rocks when the tide was out. Toby Tolman had told Dave -that for a long time he did not care to go near the rail about the -lantern and stand there a while, as it made him "nervous;' but he had -ceased to be a "land-lubber," and could now face, sailor-like in -confidence, any quarter of the sea and sky, just clinging to that little -rail. Dave had felt pleased with his steadiness of nerve when he found -he could look over that rail and then down upon the whirling sea without -very much trepidation. - -"Shouldn't like to have a dizzy fit when I was looking over," he said. -"No danger, though." - -He repeated this as he now stood on the box planted at the foot of one -of the iron supports of the rail, and continuing to rest his arms on the -rail, inspected closely, as already said, the fog-signal. Suddenly his -arms slipped, and over the horrible edge of that narrow little railing -he found himself going. Sometimes we compress years into moments -apparently. We go back, we go forward, we gather it all up into the -thought of a very brief now. But oh, how vivid!--like all the electric -force in a great mass of cloud concentrated in one dazzling, blinding -lightning-stroke. As Dave felt that his body was sliding over that rail, -he seemed to realize where he had been in the past. He thought of his -parents--his home--Uncle Ferguson at Shipton--how it was that he came to -the lighthouse, and then he seemed to realize vividly his situation -there in the lighthouse: that he was there as the responsible keeper -just then; that the safety of many vessels at sea all relied on the -thoroughness of his watch; and yet he was sliding over that rail, going -down toward the waves, the rocks--he dared not look toward them! He -could see only this one thing between him and death: beneath his hands -was an iron support of the railing. There was no other object he could -grasp for three feet on each side of him. It is true there was the -granite rim of this lantern-deck, so called sometimes, but he could not -grasp it. His hands would slide over it. Just that iron stanchion was -his hope, and as he was sinking down he convulsively clutched at it, -caught it, clung to it--shutting his eyes as if blinded. He dared not -look anywhere until he felt that his grasp was sure, and then he somehow -worked himself back, up, over the railing, and the whole of his body was -on the lantern-deck again. He crawled into the lantern, shut the door, -and threw himself on the floor weak as a baby. - -"Horrible!" was his one word. There he lay thinking. What if he had -gone down into that yawning pit of the sea! When would they have found -his body? Horrible! horrible! When he was steady enough he slowly -crept down the stairs. He entered the kitchen. It had seemed as if -everything threatened to fall when he was in danger of going down into -the sea--lantern, watch-room, lighthouse--all into the merciless sea. -But here was the kitchen. No change here. It was so quiet, so restful. -A lamp burned on the table. The fire murmured in the stove. The clock -sang its cheerful little tune of a single note. And there was the old -light-keeper's Bible. It still lay open, its pages shining in the -lamp-light, and there were the promises of the psalm Dave had already -noticed. What did it say? "They shall bear thee up in their hands, -lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." - -Dave started. Up on the high lantern-deck had any mighty angel stepped -between him and death, lifting him back on the floor of stone? Who -could say it was not so? Dave sat down in a chair, and then bowed his -head and rested it on the table. Here was God, the kindest, dearest -being in the universe, Dave's great Father, from whose arms he had been -turning away, trying to avoid them; and now, up on the lofty parapet, -they had been held out, restraining him, saving him. - -"Oh, I can't go on this way any longer," thought Dave. "And I _won't_, -either! If God will only have me--will only--" - -He fell on his knees. What he whispered to God he never could recall. -He only knew that he felt very sorry that he had been neglecting -God--pushing away the arms reached out to him and feeling after him. He -murmured something about gratitude, something about forgiveness. Then -he was conscious of a surrender, of sliding down--not into a horrible -pit from the lighthouse parapet, but into arms tender yet strong, that -went about him, that bore him up, that held him. How long he stayed -there he knew not. Some time he arose, and went upstairs to see if the -lantern were all right. Its light burned steadily, vividly, hopefully. -He looked out on the lantern-deck. There was the box still on the floor. -With a shudder he took it in and went downstairs again. Then he prayed -once more, and said aloud the words, "They shall bear thee up in their -hands, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." He was so -thankful for this night's deliverance, so sorry for his forgetfulness of -God in the long past! He rose to read again. He heard a step at last -in the passage-way between the fog-signal tower and the lighthouse,--a -heavy, echoing step, now in the tank-room, then on the stairway to the -kitchen. - -Dave sprang up to meet the keeper, and he held the lamp in the shadowy -stairway. - -"Glad to see you, Mr. Tolman." - -"Same to you. Here I am, all right, you see. Glad I went." - -"How is May?" - -"Better. Yes, thank God, she is better. There was a sudden change, and -the doctor has hope. She has been in a pretty hard place, but I think -she is out of it." - -"Good! That's the way I feel myself." - -"What!" The light-keeper looked at Dave for an explanation, but Dave -was silent. He could not tell everything at once, or even a little -to-night. The keeper went to the table, saying to himself, "He meant -May when he said that. Ah!" he thought, "my book is turned round. -Guess Dave has been reading this. Good! I thought he would get to it -some time." - -That was a very peaceful night whose hush was on the great sea, on the -surf gently rolling along the bar, and in the lighthouse tower. The -deepest peace was in Dave Fletcher's soul. - -Dave's stay at the lighthouse was exceedingly brief after this event in -his life. - -"I am really sorry to have you go," said Toby Tolman the day that Dave -left. "I shall miss you. I will take you up to town, as Timothy has -come back." - -Dave received his pay from Timothy, for whom he had acted as substitute, -and then with the keeper left the lighthouse. - -The journey to Shipton over, Dave quickly walked to Uncle Ferguson's, -and was welcomed warmly. - - - - - X. - - _THE CHRISTMAS GIFT._ - - -Christmas was approaching--Christmas with its white fields, and its -skies that seem to part like the opening of doors in a big blue wall, -and from it issue the sweet songs of the Bethlehem angels. Still more -acceptable is it when our souls seem to open like doors that fly apart, -and out to our neighbour and all souls everywhere go assurances of peace -and good-will. - -To Dave Fletcher and Dick Pray Christmas meant an end of school-days and -a return home. - -"You will come and see us 'fore you go," was Bart Trafton's meek request -to Dick and Dave when he met them in the street. Dick made the first -call, just three days before Christmas. Things did not have a festival -appearance in the Trafton home that day. Gran'sir was lying on a lounge -not far from the fire, and his cough was shaking him harder than ever. -Bart, just before Dick's call, had been down on the shore of the river -to see if the last tide had remembered the poor, and deposited any more -drift on the beach. He brought back only a puny armful, and this armful -he divided between the oven and the fire, the first half to dry and be -ready to start up the flames which the other half would be quite sure to -put down and almost put out. Granny had been calling at a neighbour's, -to borrow timidly a little tea, and met Dick just outside the door of -the Trafton home. Such a difference as there was between youth with its -ruddy cheeks and bright eyes, between plenty with its cheerful and -contented spirit, and poor old Granny Trafton! - -"Bartie wanted me to call," said Dick. - -"Come in, come in," said granny, hospitably. "We're poor folks, but -we're glad to see people." - -When Dick went away he said to himself, "'Poor folks,'--they're all -that. I wish something could be done for them." - -Dave made his call, and he left the house saying, "Something must be -done." - -The two callers met in the street the day of Dave's call, and the same -thought was in their minds. - -"Dick, see here. Those Traftons are real poor," said Dave. "I wonder -if we couldn't get them a little something for Christmas." - -"Dave, that very thought was in my mind, and I wanted to speak of it. -Come on. It's done." - -Hardly done; but that was Dick's way, and when a soul may be timid and -discouraged, that confident, self-assured style in another is very -strengthening. - -"Let's see. There is no other way than to go right round and ask our -friends. I know they will give something, Dick." - -"Hold on, hold on, Dave. That is a slow way, Let's make a dash and -capture the enemy at once. I will pick out some millionaire--" - -Here Dick turned round as if to see which "millionaire" he would select -from all of Shipton's wealthy residents. - -"Yes," he continued; "I will look after that. Don't you give yourself a -moment of uneasiness on that score. I will pick out some rich fellow, -tell him what he ought to do, and bag the game on the spot. There!" - -Dave laughed. He knew Dick's style thoroughly. At the same time it did -give one like Dave, who shrank from begging, new courage to have Dick -talk so boldly. - -"Let's see, Dick. It is now Monday. We might meet on Wednesday at your -cousin's store, and find out how we stand, and send our things to the -Traftons on Wednesday afternoon; and Christmas is on Thursday, you -know." - -"Dave, don't worry about the wherewithal." Here Dick, with a very -solemn air of assurance, looked Dave steadily in the eye. "I purpose to -bag a millionaire and make him do his duty, Dave Fletcher." - -The two friends laughed, shook hands, and separated. Dave listened as -he was about turning a corner of the street, for he heard somebody -whistling. It was Dick whistling, in a loud, bold, cheery way. - -"Well," thought Dave, "I'll make a beginning now. I will speak to Aunt -Nancy soon as I get home." - -Aunt Nancy was stoning raisins in preparation for a Christmas baking. - -"Will I give something to the Traftons? Oh, certainly. I expect a good -warm blanket would be just the thing for gran'sir, and I'll give that as -my share. _My_ share, remember. Your uncle must give his mite. I tell -ye, David," said Aunt Nancy in a whisper, "your uncle has some -first-class Baldwins down in the cellar. Just touch him upon those." - -"I will, aunt, thank you." - -And next, would the home of James Tolman give anything? - -"Pies and potatoes; you can count on us for some of both kinds," said -Mrs. Tolman. - -The next place was the home of the light-keeper, Toby Tolman, when -ashore. His wife was dead, and a widowed daughter and her only child, -May, lived in his house. He preferred to keep up the home, although -personally there but a very little of the time. - -"Should we like to give anything? Of course," said the keeper's -daughter; "that is what Christmas is for. Only last week I heard father -say we could give some wood off our pile, for he calculated we had more -than enough to carry us through the winter." - -"Don't you let young folks help?" asked a silvery voice, sending at Dave -an arch look out of two penetrating black eyes. "You must not think I -am an invalid and past helping, if I was so sick last summer. Now I can -just go round in the neighbourhood and get together some eatables, I -know, and perhaps clothing that might do for Bart." - -"That would be splendid," said Dave, stirred deeply by those black eyes, -and wishing that in every house visited he was the individual of whom -May Tolman would solicit. - -When Dave brought these donations into one collection, he found not only -the blanket for gran'sir but a shawl for granny. There also were -clothes for Bart, and any amount of things for the Christmas dinner. - -The next point was how to get them taken up to the Traftons. For the -clothing and eatables Dave borrowed Uncle Ferguson's cart, but for the -wood only James Tolman's waggon would answer. That procession of two -teams, the waggon and the cart, had a Christmas look that would have -been recognized anywhere. - -"Whoa-a-a!" shouted Dave, as the procession neared the boot and shoe -shop kept by Dick's cousin Sam. Dick was behind the counter waiting on a -customer. As he saw Dave entering he ran his hand through his hair in a -nervous, despairing style, but said nothing until the customer had left. - -"There, Dave, it is too bad, but--but--whose are those teams out in the -street?" - -"Just things I picked up." - -"And the wood?" - -"Going to the same place." - -"That's good. Then I don't feel so bad." - -"Well, anything you find, good, you know, for Christmas, why, send it -along." - -"I shouldn't wonder, though, if--if--it might be too late now; but--you -have got something--if--I should be too late--and I do believe I am too -late. Sorry. Glad, though, I put you up to it. I knew you would attend -to it." - -With a triumphant wave of his hand, as if he were permitting Dave to -drive off with a donation that Dick Pray had gathered, he accompanied -Dave to the door and then retreated to the counter. - -"If that isn't Dick Pray all over!" said Dave. - -It would be difficult to tell the feelings of joy occasioned in the -Trafton home by those gifts. - -"Davie," said Bart, "I had a dream last night, and I guess it is -a-comin' true. I thought I saw that ladder that Jacob had a look at, -you know, when the angels were a-goin' up and down, and comin' down they -had bundles in their arms." - -Dave entered the house, bringing in bundle after bundle. Bart thought -the angels looked somewhat like that. - -"Hadn't you better try this shawl?" said Dave to granny, who looked cold -and purple. And would gran'sir be willing to be wrapped in the blanket? -The thin, worn consumptive responded with a glad smile, and said in a -whisper that he hadn't been so comfortable since he was sick. And the -wood--how it set that old stove to shaking and laughing and glowing till -its front seemed like a jolly face full of sparkling eyes! That is one -good result coming from a stove cracked everywhere in front. - -Granny told the minister, Mr. Potter, two days after, how all this -generosity affected gran'sir. - -"Why, sir, it made him just heavenly! He cried and laughed--it was so -good to be warm, you know. And he's softened so, sir. I think it begun -when Bartie begun to read the Bible to him, and it has been a-keepin' -on, sir, a-softenin', sir--don't scold, you know, or be harsh-like. -I--I--I--" Here granny buried her face in her apron and cried. "I'm -afraid--sir--may be--he won't live--long--he's--softened so--sir--he -has." - -It was nothing wonderful. Like the warm breath of the spring on the -chilled and torpid flowers, arousing them into the activity of bud and -blossom time, the thoughtful kindness of God's creatures brought God -nigh to gran'sir; brought the breath of his benediction to gran'sir's -soul, and gave him a new life. - -"God has been so good--he draws me," gran'sir said to granny an early -day in January. "It is--like he's callin' me--and--I guess I'll go." - -His going was so peaceful that to say when it was would be like marking -the spot where the current crosses the line between the river and the -ocean; and yet his soul did cross from time, so short and river-like, -into the broad and boundless ocean of eternity. People said it would be -as well for the comfort of granny and Little Mew, and even better, for -gran'sir they declared to be exacting. They did not know how it was. -Granny and Little Mew felt that they were the exacting ones, for they -wanted gran'sir to stay. Little Mew's soul was clouded by the shadow of -a thought that by the death of gran'sir his mission in this world was -very much abridged. He was tempted to wonder again for what God had -sent a little fellow like him into this world. - - - - - XI. - - _AT SHIPTON AGAIN._ - - -"Nothing for me?" - -"Nothing." - -"Sure?" - -"Well--" - -The postmistress, in response to Dave Fletcher's anxious inquiry, looked -again at a package of letters she had been handling. - -"Oh yes, here is something! I didn't see it the first time. Beg -pardon." - -"All right. I wasn't really expecting anything, but it is so long since -I have had a letter that I was kind of hungry for one." - -Dave took his letter from the postmistress and walked away. - -"Postmarked Shipton!" said Dave, looking at the envelope. "Don't seem -to know the address. Let's break that and see what it says." - -He glanced down at the name with which the letter closed. - -"James Tolman; what does he want?" wondered Dave. He then returned to -the first line and began to read:-- - - -"DEAR DAVID,--I have not forgotten that you were in my Sunday-school -class when in Shipton, and I felt that I knew you well enough to ask you -to take this into consideration, whether you wouldn't like to come and -be my clerk. I am in the ship-chandlery business, and have two clerks. -One of them is going away, and may leave me for good. I have promised -to keep his place open for him three months. At the end of that time he -may come back. Now, if I ask you to come for three months, I know--" - - -Dave crumpled the letter in his hand, thrust it into his pocket, and -springing into his waggon, cried, "Get up there, Jimmy! Don't know that -you and I will be travelling this road together much longer. Get up -there!" - -"Jimmy" was urged at an unusual rate over the road, and pricked up his -ears in astonishment as his master cried, "Faster, faster!" - -"There, mother!" said Dave, when he entered the Fletcher kitchen; "just -what I wanted has happened." - -"What is that?" replied Mrs. Fletcher. - -"Read this, mother, and you will see." - -"For three months, Dave, and perhaps no longer, it means." - -"Oh, well, it will be a stepping-stone to something, if I have to leave -it. Just get started in Shipton and I can go it." - -"But you haven't read about the pay, Dave." - -"Well, mother, the fact is I like the place--I mean Shipton. I love to -be near the salt water and where I can see the ships--" - -"And the lighthouse--" - -"Yes." - -"And May Tolman," sang out a voice from the adjoining sitting-room, and -Annie Fletcher appeared at the kitchen door, asking, "How is it, Dave?" - -Dave felt it to be the wisest course to keep still and blush. - -In a few days he was ready to start for Shipton. He called one evening -to see some of his old acquaintances, and the next day started for -Shipton. - -On arriving he reported for duty at the shop of "James Tolman, -Ship-chandler." He was now eighteen, and he felt that active life was -beginning in earnest. The shop was an old one, and before James -Tolman's business days it had been kept by his father. It was packed -with all kinds of goods available for ship-furnishings. As one opened -the door a scent of tar issued, strong enough to make the most -thorough-going old salt say, "This seems like home." There were coils -of rope of every size ranged on either side of the passage-way. There -were capstans and anchors and blocks and ring-bolts. There were all -kinds of shining tin and copper ware for the cook's galley. There were -compasses, and ship-lanterns, and speaking-trumpets, and sheath-knives, -and suits of oiled clothing, and slouching "tarpaulins." On stormy -days, when Dave from the back windows could see that the waves in the -river had stuck in their crests saucy feathers of foam, it seemed to him -as if he heard the coils of rope creak in the store and the suits of -sailors' clothing rustle; and what wonder if some old salt had waddled -forward in one of those stiff suits, and, seizing a trumpet, cried in -ringing tones to the pots and kettles hanging from the brown, dusty -beams, "Furl your top-sails." It was a pleasure to Dave when an old -Shipton sea-captain might heave in sight on stormy days, and, entering -the shop, take a seat by the crackling fire and tell of gales round Cape -Horn or in the Bay of Biscay. - -"I believe I am cut out for this business," said Dave. - -His former Shipton acquaintances were glad to see him back. Dick Pray -for six months had been in town, a clerk in his cousin's shop. He now -came to bring his congratulations to Dave. - -"Glad to see you, Dave," he said. - -"Thanks, Dick. How is business?" - -"Oh, booming! booming!" - -All business that Dick's magnificent abilities came in contact with -either had "boomed," or was "booming," or would "boom" very soon. No -tame word was fit to describe Dick's business ventures. - -And the boy who came shyly, timidly after Dick was--Bart Trafton. - -"You well, Bartie?" asked Dave. - -"Oh, better!" - -"Why?" - -"Because you've got back," said the caller, with snapping eyes. - -"That's encouraging. And granny, is she well?" - -"Oh yes, when--" - -He did not finish. If he had completed his sentence, he would have said -"when father isn't at home." - -The same day two other people were in the shop whom Dave had met -previously, though he did not recognize them at once. There stood -before the counter a rather tall man, wearing a tall hat and closely -muffled about the face, for the day was one of cold blasts of storm. - -"I want a good ship's lantern," said the customer. - -"Yes, sir," replied Dave, ranging before the man an array of lantern -goods. - -"You have come to be clerk?" asked the man. - -Dave looked up more carefully, and saw that the man wore spectacles. - -"Yes, sir," replied Dave. - -The man inquired the price of the lanterns, selected one, and went out. - -"Halloo! he has given me twopence too much!" exclaimed Dave. - -"That doesn't matter," said a man who was watching through a window in -the door the storm driving without. - -"Oh yes, it does," murmured Dave.--"Johnny!" he called aloud to a -younger clerk in the counting-room, "just look after things a moment -while I go out." - -Johnny came out into the shop, and Dave seized his cap and ran after the -customer. The latter was a fast walker, and was hurrying round a corner -of the street when Dave overtook him. - -"See here, sir! A mistake in the change. I counted it, and you gave me -too much." - -"Oh--ah! Thank you! I see you don't know me." - -The man slipped down a scarf wrapped about his face, took off his -spectacles, and there was--somebody, but Dave could not say who. - -"Not so rough up here as down at the bar--in a schooner, say." - -"O--Squire Sylvester!" - -"That's it. I think I was too rough with you that day, for I found out -afterward you had nothing to do with it." - -"Oh, well, sir--I--" - -"I just wanted to say that, and am glad you think enough of another -man's property, though only two-pence, to chase after him and give it to -him." - -Then the tall man tramped on. - -"It shows," thought Dave, "that he hasn't forgotten what happened some -time ago, and I suppose he had been wanting to say what he got off to -me. I don't harbour it against you, Squire Sylvester. When a man's -property has been run off with, it would be a wonder if he didn't say -something." - -When Dave returned to the store the man at the door still stood there, -looking out through the little window. - -"I think I know that chap's face," thought Dave, "but I really can't say -who it is." - -The man was disposed to talk. "Did you catch the squire?" he asked. - -"Oh yes." - -"Did he take the twopence?" - -"Oh yes." - -"Catch him not take it! The squire would hold on to a halfpenny till it -cankered if he could possibly git along without spendin' it. I don't -believe in worryin' yourself about sich people." - -"Twopence didn't seem much, but then it wasn't mine." - -"I see you don't mean to be rich?" - -"I mean to be honest." - -"And die poor?" - -"That doesn't follow." - -"Oh, it does 'em good--these rich fellers--to lose a little now and -then." - -"But they ought not to lose it if we have it and it is theirs." - -"Oh, you are too honest. Say, I see you don't know me." - -"Well, yes, I ought to know your face." - -"I've let my whiskers grow. I didn't have any the last time you saw me. -Cut all these off," said the man, lifting a big beard, "and it would -make a big difference. Don't you remember Timothy Waters, at the -lighthouse?" - -"Why, yes. You Timothy?" - -"Yes." - -"And are you at the light now?" - -"Just the same." - -"How is Mr. Tolman?" - -"Holdin' on. Oh, he likes it! You must come and see us." - -Having given this invitation, Timothy left the store. Dave watched him -as he moved down the street, turning at last into a little lane leading -down to the wharves. Then he thought of Timothy rowing his dory down -the river, tossing on the uneasy tide, battling his way forward until he -halted at the foot of a great gray-stone tower in the sea. Looking up -at the doorway of the tower, Dave saw the keeper's familiar face. - - - - - XII. - - _ON WHICH SIDE VICTORY?_ - - -"Well, how goes the temperance fight, Dave?" asked Dick one day. - -"We are pushing it. We have organized our society, and are going to -hold meetings." - -"The fight," as Dick called it, was conducted on the principles of -peace; but if peaceable it was not sleepy. A series of meetings of -various kinds had been carefully planned, and of these one was a young -people's meeting. All the exercises, like speaking and singing, were to -be conducted by Shipton's youth. Bart expected to have a humble part in -this meeting, and say a few Scripture verses bearing on the sin of -liquor-drinking. His father was at home, and Bart did wish that in some -way he could be persuaded to go to this meeting. There did not seem to -be much prospect of his attendance. One day he received a mortifying -check to his course. Having drunk up all his money at the public-house, -he was roughly turned out of doors. This time he realized the disgrace -of his situation; and the next morning, to granny's astonishment, he did -not visit the saloon. To her still greater surprise, he did not leave -the house all day. He even sawed and cut some wood for the fire. This -was deservedly ranked as a wonder in the history of the man. When Bart -returned at night his father was upstairs, "lying down," granny -reported. - -"Ain't that queer, granny?" whispered Bart. - -"I haven't known anything like it, Bartie. He's been cuttin' more wood -this afternoon. P'raps he is sick." - -Not sick, but mortified and penniless. To such people publicity is not -attractive. - -"I don't know what it is," said granny, "but Miss Perkins says she hearn -there has been trouble down in the saloon." - -Miss Perkins was a gossip with a news-bag that seemed to have the depth -and roominess of the Atlantic. - -"Awful place, ain't it, granny, where they sell rum?" - -Granny turned on him--turned quickly, fiercely. - -"Bartholomew!" - -She rarely addressed him that way. When she did she meant something -serious. Bart's timorous face shrank before her sharp, fierce gaze. - -"Bartholomew, I want you to promise never to sell rum. Put your hand on -this Bible!" - -"Oh, I--I never will sell." - -"And you won't drink it? Promise!" - -"Never!" - -It was like Hamilcar of Carthage taking his son Hannibal to the altar, -and there making him swear eternal hatred to Rome. Then Bart went -softly out of the room. - -Into some refuge he desired to steal, tell God that he, Little Mew, was -weak; that he wanted to be taken care of; that he did wish to get help -somehow for his father--help to be better--and he wanted to remember -granny. Up over the steep, narrow, worn stairway he stole into his -little bedroom, that, small and humble, had yet been a precious refuge -to him, and his bed had been a boat bearing him away across waters of -forgetfulness of poverty and hunger to the restful isle of dreams. If -he could only forget now! He could pray, and if prayer does not make -forgetful it makes restful. He leaned against his bed and told all his -trouble to God--told him of his desire for his father, how much he -wished God would make his father a new heart; how he wanted help for -himself, that he might be kind and patient. It was touching to hear his -boyish outcries, as kneeling he pleaded for one so weak, so lost, as his -father. Then he went downstairs again. The moment his feet were heard -on the stairs, Bart's father, who had been lying in the dark on the side -of the bed nearest to the wall, arose, sighed, and went down also. Bart -was standing in the little entry leading to the kitchen. - -"Bart--I--want to be--" The father stopped. - -It was not so much anything he said, for he said nothing definite, but -it was his tone that encouraged Bart, and he listened eagerly. - -"I want to be a good father to you, Bart; God knows I do." - -What? Bart had never heard such language before from this parent with -agitated voice and frame. Bart caught instantly at a hope that had just -begun to take shape. Would his father go to the temperance meeting with -him? - -"Father, your ship, they say, won't sail to-morrow; and if it don't, -will you go to the temperance meeting with me to-morrow night?" - -"Bartholomew, if my ship don't sail, then I will go with you." - -He turned and went upstairs again. - -"O Bart," exclaimed granny, "let us pray that God will keep the winds -off shore and not let Thomas's ship get to sea!" - -The next day the winds still were unfavourable, and Bart and granny -looked at one another with happier faces than they had been carrying -ever since Thomas Trafton's return. - -"Granny, the wind is not fair yet," Bart would exclaim, after eying the -vane on the nearest church steeple. Granny would then take her turn, -and go out, her apron thrown over her head, and watch the vane. At last -they could say, "The ship won't go to-night." - -When ever before had that vane been watched to see if it indicated a -wind that would keep Thomas Trafton at home? - -"Hear me say my verses once more," Bart whispered to his grandmother; -and assured that his contribution to the evening's exercises was in -readiness, he went with his father to the temperance meeting. Bart's -place was among the speakers, and they filled several pews, their -bright, hopeful faces lifted above the railings of the pews like flowers -above the garden-bed. Bart's father was in the rear of the church. Bart -was afraid to leave him at that distant, unguarded point; but he had -promised Bart faithfully to stay, and not go out. Was ever any -attendant at a meeting in a more discouraged, helpless mood than Thomas -Trafton? He had been thinking, somewhat as he was accustomed to think -when off at sea and away from temptation, that never again would he -touch liquor; but could he keep his resolution if he made one? He felt -burdened with a weighty desire, burdened with a sense of shame, burdened -with a conviction of weakness, burdened every way and always. - -The meeting began. Mr. James Tolman conducted it, but only to call the -names of those participating in it. The recitations were varied. -Several had quite pretentious speeches, and others gave only a modest -extract from some appeal in poetry or prose. There were those who -simply had Bible verses, and in this section Bart Trafton had a place. -His verses were on the sin of intemperance. When his turn was reached -he came to the platform quite readily, and then turned toward the -audience. He looked once, saw great, bewildering rows of faces, and all -his courage left him. He could not look again at those hundreds of -staring eyes. He dropped his head, blushed, and every idea he had taken -with him to the platform seemed hopelessly to have left him. Like -birds, those verses had flown away, and how could he possibly call them -back from that sudden flight? However, he did catch one bird. He could -think of one word--"Wine!" He resolved to begin with that. A decoy -bird will sometimes bring a flock about it, and if he said that one word -he might think of the others. "Wine--" he screamed. Then he waited for -the rest of the flock. He shrieked again, "Wine!" Once more, -"W-w-wine!" - -People were now smiling to see that timorous, blushing, stammering lad -on the platform, and some of the children broke out into an embarrassing -titter. Bart, turned in helpless confusion to Mr. Tolman. - -"Forgot it," he whispered, - -"Say something," said Mr. Tolman, in an encouraging tone. - -Something? What would it, could it be? Bart gave one timid glance at -the tittering, gaping rows before him, and feeling that he must say -something, gave the first words that came into his mind. Annie Fletcher -had taught them to him. Bart's voice was sharp and high, and it pierced -all the space between Thomas Trafton and the platform, and the father -plainly heard the boy. - -"'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give -you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and -lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is -easy, and my burden is light.'" - -Some of the people wondered what that had to do with intemperance. -Thomas Trafton did not wonder. He heard nothing else. He did not notice -whether Bart stayed on the platform or left it; he did not notice who -followed Bart; he heard only those verses. The pew was an old one, and -when improvements had been made in the church, this pew was not touched, -but, being so far away from notice, was left undisturbed in all its odd -and antique furnishings. Thomas Trafton never forgot the exact place -where he sat and heard through his son's voice this short gospel that -came down from God's lofty throne of love. He would in later days come -to this old pew and gladly occupy it and recall this night of the -temperance meeting. He would hear again the invitation given in his -boy's piercing voice, and again would be repeated, though not as -vividly, his experience that night; for he had an experience. It seemed -to him as if while sitting there burdened and weary, yet willing, -longing to find relief, One came to him,--One who had in his brow the -print of thorns, and in his side the mark of a spear, and in his feet -the scar of driven nails. Thomas Trafton met his Saviour there, and -into peace and strength came the soul of the once drunkard. - -Not long after this the west wind blew, its strong wings beating fast -and sweeping Thomas Trafton's vessel far away to sea. Very few knew of -his surrender to God, which brought a victory over his appetite. The -minister of the church, Mr. Potter, knew, and Dave Fletcher knew. - - - - - XIII. - - _WHAT TO DO NEXT._ - - -When Dave Fletcher became a clerk with Mr. Tolman, he knew he was taking -the place of another who might come back in three months, and back he -did come. - -"Sorry, David, I haven't a place for you," said Mr. Tolman. - -"Well," replied Dave, "if there isn't a place here I must find one -elsewhere." - -But where? He knew that his father did not need him at home, as he had -already made plans for all needed farm-work. - -"I don't want to go home and be just a burden, hanging round," reflected -Dave. "Then I must find work here." - -He talked over the situation with Dick Pray. - -"What would I do, Dave? Well," said Dick, putting his hands deep down -in his pockets, "I should advertise and--wait." - -"I mean to advertise, but I think I had better stir round also." - -"Just as well to say you want something--say it loud and strong, you -know--and then let others ask what is wanted." - -Dick did like to sound a trumpet, giving as loud a blast as possible, -and then let the world run up and see what "Lord Dick" wanted. - -"Oh, I shall advertise, and stir round also, though I don't just fancy -it, and I can't say what will come from it." - -And what did come the first day? - -Nothing. - -The second day? - -Nothing. - -The third day? - -Nothing. - -"It is getting to be fearfully tiresome," said Dave the fourth day. "I -have inquired in all directions, but I can't seem to hear of anything. -Oh dear! I shall always know after this how to pity folks out of work. -Well, I suppose I must keep at it. If I stop, I shall surely get -nothing; if I keep at it, I may be successful. Here goes for Squire -Sylvester, though I don't know why I should ask him." - -He mounted the steps leading to the door of Squire Sylvester's office, -and hesitatingly entered that impressive business sanctum. Squire -Sylvester was standing at his desk biting the end of a lead-pencil, and -studying the columns of figures on the paper before him. - -"Squire Sylvester, do--do--you know of any vacant situation in -business?" asked Dave. - -The squire looked up. - -"Humph! Nothing to do?" - -"Can't find it, sir." - -"Well, I wish I could find somebody to work for me." - -"Have you anything?" asked Dave eagerly, thinking how nice it would be -to occupy a desk in the squire's office and assist in the management of -such business enterprises as the building of ships or the sailing of -them. - -"I have been trying to find somebody to cut up some wood for me and stow -it away, but I can't get hold of any unoccupied talent." - -Dave's countenance dropped. It went up again, though. - -"It will pay a week's board, maybe," he said to himself. - -"I--I'll take that job, sir. I know how to swing an axe, and I'd rather -be doing that than go loafing about." - -"Good! I thought there was some stuff in you worth having." - -Dave disregarded this compliment, and asked, "When shall I go to work?" - -"Any time. Saw is behind the chopping-block in my shed, hung on a nail, -or ought to be; and axe, I guess, is keeping the company of the block." - -"I will begin to-day. There will be a comfort in knowing I am doing -something." - -"That is a good spirit, young man; and let me assure you if you stick to -that style of doing things, some day you will be able to take comfort--a -lot of it." - -The squire went to the window of the office when Dave had left, and -watched him cross the street in the direction of the squire's home. - -"I like that young chap," murmured the squire. - -Dave found the house of his employer, left word at the door that he was -sent to look after the wood, and went into the shed. - -"Here is the chopping-block, and there is the axe, and the saw is all -right. I will take my tools outdoors, where my wood is," said Dave. - -It was a day in early spring. Snow still clung to the corners of -gardens, and hid away under the bushes, and lay thick on the shaded side -of buildings. The sun, though, was strengthening its fires every day, -and had coaxed a few bluebirds to come north, and say that warm weather -had surely started from its southern home, and would be here in due -season, though a bit delayed, perhaps. Two hours later, Dave's axe was -striking music out of the pieces of wood the saw had first played a tune -on; and it is that kind of music that helps a man to feel independent -and self-reliant, contented and cheerful. - -"Hollo! that you?" sang out a voice. "How are you, old man?" - -Dave looked up, and saw Dick Pray nodding over the fence. - -"The old man has found work, you see," replied Dave. - -"None of that sort for me," sang out Dick. - -In about half-an-hour another voice was calling to him across the garden -fence. This was not the flexible, smooth, rounded voice of youth -addressing Dave, but there were the tones of an old man. There was a -world of friendship, though, in this old man's salutation, "How d'ye do? -how d'ye do?" - -Dave turned toward it, and there was the old light-keeper, Toby Tolman. - -"May I come in?" asked the light-keeper, approaching the gate. - -"Oh yes, sir, do! Glad to see you." - -The light-keeper came up the gravelled walk, approached the pile, and -said, "How much more of a job have you got?" - -"Oh, a couple of days." - -"Well, then, do you want another?" - -"Yes, sir. But how did you know I was here?" - -"May, my granddaughter, knew, and she told me. I was at the house, you -see. My job for you is to go to the lighthouse and be my assistant. -She told me, and I said to myself, 'There's the man for me!'" - -"You don't mean it! Why, where's Timothy Waters?" - -"Got all through." - -"His time up?" - -"Well, he went before he wanted to. Wasn't just particular in reckoning -what belonged to others." - -Dave recalled at once the little affair about the two pennies. - -"Who's at the light now, Mr. Tolman?" - -"Oh, an old hand, who is just piecing me out at this time when I need -help. He leaves day after to-morrow. Now, come! I'm up here trying to -look somebody up to be my assistant. Can't bring it about at once; but -if you'll go and stay a while I think you'll get the berth, and I don't -know of anybody I'd like better to have." - -"And I should like to come, too, and I will, just as soon as I finish -this job." - -"Maybe the squire would let you off now." - -"I daresay." - -"I'd like to take you back with me to-day." - -"And I'd like to go, but I'd better finish up." - -"You're right, on second thought. The squire wouldn't hesitate a -moment, I venture to say; but then people sometimes grant us favours -when at the same time they say to themselves, 'I wish they hadn't asked -me.' You stay and finish your job." - -The second day after this the task was completed, the saw going to its -place on the nail behind the chopping-block, and the axe finding -quarters near by. - -"There!" said the squire: "I don't know that I ever paid for a job with -greater satisfaction." - -He was handling a roll of bills as he said this, and handed one of these -to Dave. - -"It is too much, sir." - -"Oh no. That was a peculiar pile of wood, and it took a peculiar kind -of merit to get the better of it. For ordinary wood," said the squire, -his eyes blinking, "I should only pay an ordinary price; but this wood -was something more than ordinary, and of course the price goes up. When -I can do you a favour, you let me know." - -That day toward sunset a dory was gently tossing at the foot of the -lighthouse on Black Rocks. - -"Hollo!" shouted Dave, looking up from the boat and aiming his voice at -the door above. - -"Oh, that you?" asked the light-keeper, quickly appearing in the doorway -and looking down. "My man will be here in a jiffy and go home in your -boat, as we fixed it, you know." - -Dave exchanged the boat for the lighthouse, and the retiring assistant -quit the lighthouse for the boat, then rowing to his home. Dave heard -that night the wind humming about the lantern, saw the friendly rays -beckoning from other lighthouses, heard the wash of the waves around the -gray tower of stone, and felt that he had reached a home. - - - - - XIV. - - _GUESTS AT THE LIGHTHOUSE._ - - -In a month Dave Fletcher was established at the light on Black Rocks as -assistant-keeper--a position that would bring him a far handsomer salary -than could any present clerkship at Shipton. This berth was not secured -without a struggle by Dave's friends, as several candidates were willing -to take the duties and profits of the place. - -"You've got the place, though others wanted it," said the keeper, -returning from town one day and wiping his round, red face with his -handkerchief. "News came to-day. I don't know but you would have lost -it, but they say a friend of yours interceded and told them up and down -you must have it any way." - -"Who was it?" - -"Somebody that said he had seen you run a saw and knew you could run a -lighthouse. That's what folks tell me he said." - -"Oh, Squire Sylvester!" - -"Yes. Queer feller; but he isn't all growl, though he does look like -it, maybe." - -Some time after this there were visitors at the light. One was expected, -the other was not. The first was Bart Trafton, brought by the -light-keeper one soft, sunny April day. Bart was very much interested -in the lantern. - -[Illustration: "Bart was very much interested in the lantern of the -lighthouse." _Page 159_] - -"Can I go up with you and see the lantern?" he asked. - -"Oh yes," said Dave, leading Bart up the iron stairway that mounted from -room to room. - -"There!" said Bart, looking round on the glass windows enclosing the -lantern and the lamp in its centre: "I think this is a dreadful -interestin' place." - -"I think so too, Bart." - -"And what I think is interestin' is that lamp in the centre. Why, -granny uses a lamp that, it seems to me, is no bigger than that, but it -can't throw anywhere near such a light as that. I saw your light last -night." - -"You did? where?" - -"From the hill behind our house. I went up there and saw it." - -"I did not know that. Then we could signal to one another." - -"Signal?" - -"Yes, this way. Supposing, now, I should hang a lantern out on the side -of the lighthouse toward the land, toward your home, and you could see -it: you might take it as a sign that I wanted--well--we will say--a -doctor." - -"I think I could see it with father's spy-glass; it is real powerful. -Say, will you try it to-morrow night? You hang it out, and I will take -father's spy-glass and see if I can make out anything. Then I will send -you word by the mail. You don't think it is too far from our house to -the light?" - -"Too far to see? oh no. Now, I said a man might want a doctor here. I -have often thought if one of us was sick--and you know the keeper is -getting old--and if the other couldn't get off to bring a doctor, it -might be a very serious thing for the sick man." - -"Well, if you are in trouble and will hang out a light, and I see it, I -will tell the people, and they will get to you." - -Dave thought no more of this, but silently said, "I wonder if I haven't -something else interesting to show the boy! Yes, I have got it." - -He went down from the lantern to the kitchen, and took from its shelf -the strange box of sandal-wood, whose story Dave already knew. - -The light-keeper now repeated to Bart the tale of the drifting relic. -He held it to his ear. Did the boy think it was a shell--that it would -murmur a song of wave and cloud and the broad sunshine sweeping down on -lonely surf-washed ledges? - -"It won't talk," said the light-keeper, beaming on him. - -Bart shook his head. - -"I wish it would talk," thought the keeper. "It might tell about that -man whom we picked up and brought into the light, and who seemed to know -something about it. I wonder if he will ever call for it!" - -He spoke of it to Dave afterward. The two were up on the lantern-deck -at sunset looking off upon the sea. The water was still and glassy. It -was heaving gently, as if with the dying day it too was dying, but -feebly pulsating with life. One vast surface of shining gray, it -gradually darkened till it was a mass of shadows across which were drawn -the lines of white surf cresting the ledges. - -"Several vessels in the harbour," said Dave. - -"Yes: they have been coming down from Shipton this afternoon; but the -wind has all died away, and they seem to have made up their mind to -anchor there to-night. It is getting cool. Perhaps we had better go -down," said the keeper, shrugging his shoulders. While within the -lantern he glanced at the lamp, and then descended to the kitchen. -Without the twilight deepened. Out of the gloom towered the lighthouse, -bearing aloft its guiding, warning rays. The keeper was in the kitchen, -trimming an old lantern which had done him much faithful service. That -small visitor, Bart, had gone with Dave up into the lantern, anxious to -see the working of the lamp. - -The keeper lighted his lantern, and then started for the fog-signal -tower. He was descending the stairs, when he heard a cry outside of the -lighthouse. - -"Somebody at the foot of the ladder, I guess, wants me," concluded the -keeper, "and I will go to the door and see who it is." - -He went to the door, lantern in hand, and looked down. - -"Hollo, there!" sang out a man from the shadows below. "Shall I come -up?" - -"Ay, ay!" responded the keeper. "Low water down there, isn't it, so you -can come up the ladder?" - -"I guess so. I will make fast and try the ladder." - -The keeper heard the steps of somebody on the ladder, and then a man's -form wriggled up through the hole in the platform outside the door. - -"I get up with less trouble to you than I did the last time I was here," -said the man. - -The keeper looked at him. - -"Ho! this you?" he asked. - -"Nobody else." - -It was the man who one day, when intoxicated, had been rescued from the -bar, and the next morning had shown singular interest in the little box -of sandalwood. - -"Come up!" said the keeper, leading the man to the kitchen. - -"I have been some time coming, haven't I?" - -"Better late than never. Always glad to see people. Take that chair -before the fire, and make yourself at home. I did not know as I should -ever see you again. You are a Shipton man?" asked the keeper bluntly. - -"Yes, I belong to Shipton; but then I am off about all the time. I -think I have seen you on the street there." - -"I was thinking myself I had seen you, but I couldn't say when, except -that time you were at the lighthouse." - -"Have you got that box now?" - -"Oh yes. Here it is. Nobody has come to claim it." - -He took the box down from its shelf and placed it on the table. - -The keeper's companion said, "Now I will tell you the story about that -box, and this letter, too, will confirm it." - -As he spoke he took a letter from his pocket and opened it. - -"The man who wrote that was an old shipmate, Grant Williams, a warm -friend, and faithful too. He knew I had a weakness, and used to say he -was afraid his shipmate would get into the breakers. He sent me a -letter from a foreign port; here it is. You look at it. You will see -that he gave me some good advice. He laid it all down like a chart; but -I was a poor hand to steer by it. 'I expect to sail for Shipton in a -Norwegian bark,' he wrote (I think he was born in Norway himself, but -had been a long time in America), 'and I am going to get and bring my -old shipmate a present of a box of sandal-wood, and I shall pack a few -keepsakes into it. I will put my picture in, just to make it seem all -the more like a present from me. I will put your initials and mine on -the under side of the box. I will leave it at Shipton with your father -if you are not there. And now don't forget this: it is to be a reminder -of my desire that you should let liquor alone. When you see it, think -of an old shipmate, and look at my face you will find in the box.' The -first time I saw the box was that morning after the night you found me -in a state that was no credit to the one found. I knew the ship had -been wrecked, and only that, and when I saw the face of my old shipmate, -and knew that he had been lost on the bar where I came pretty near -losing my own life through what he warned me against, I--I--felt it. I -didn't see how I could take the box until I was in a condition to give -some promise, you know, that I would be a better man; and now I hope I -am, God being my helper." - -"Well, I think it is plain proof that you are the one whom the man -Williams meant, and the owner of this box, if those are your initials on -the bottom--if--" - -The keeper was about to ask the man for his name, but the sound of a -light step tripping downstairs arrested their conversation, and both -turned toward the stairway. - -It was Bart Trafton. He looked up, stopped, started forward, and -exclaimed, "Why, father!" - -"This you, Bart?" said Thomas Trafton. "How came you here?--My boy, Mr. -Tolman. My vessel is off there in the stream, and while waiting for the -wind I just rowed over." - -There they stood, side by side, Bart and his father, while the keeper -was rising to hand the box to Thomas Trafton. The lighthouse kitchen -never presented a more interesting scene than that of the reformed -sailor in the presence of his oft-abused child, taking into his hands -this gift, that had survived a wrecking storm, to be not only a pledge -of the friendship of the dead, but to the living a stimulus to -right-doing and a warning against wrong. - -Thomas Trafton rowed back to the vessel that night. Bart was carried to -town the next day. Bart reached home at sundown, and first told granny -about the affair of the box as far as he had been able to pick up the -threads of the details and weave them into a story; then he asked, -"Where is father's spy-glass?" - -"Behind the clock, Bartie," said granny. "What do you want it for?" - -"Just to look off," he said, seizing the glass and bearing it out-doors. -Granny followed him into the yard and there halted; for Bart was going -farther, already bestriding the fence. - -"Where is that boy going?" wondered granny. - -"Bartie!" she called aloud, "it is a-gittin' too late to see things -clear." - -He was now mounting a hill beyond the yard. - -"Back in a moment, granny!" he shouted. - -She soon saw his figure standing out, clear and distinct, against the -western sky, and he was elevating the glass. - -"Too soon to see anything yet," he said, when he returned. - -"Where you lookin', child?" - -"Off to the lighthouse." - -"They haven't more than lighted her up." - -"I know it. I was too early." - -"You want to see the light? You won't have to take a glass for that; -you just wait." - -"I want to see something else. You come with me, granny, when I go -again." - -"Sakes, child, what you up to?" - -Later two figures crept up the hill, one carrying a spy-glass. - -"There, granny!" said the bearer of the glass. "Now you look off to the -light at Black Rocks, and right under it see if you can't see another -light--a little one." - -"La, child," declared granny, vainly looking through the glass, "I can't -see nothin'. This thing pokes out what there is there." - -"Eh? can't you, granny?" replied Bart, levelling the glass toward the -harbour. "I see the light. And--and--I think--I see a--something else -underneath. Seems like a little star under a moon." - -The next day this was dropped in the post-office:-- - - -"DEAR DAVE,--I saw your lantern, I know. Did you hang it out? Your -friend, BART." - - -Dave answered this in person within a week. - -"I'm having a holiday," he said to granny--"off for a day--and thought I -would call. I want you, please, to say for me to Bart I got his note, -and that I did hang out my lantern the night that he looked for it." - -"Now, did you ever see sich a boy? He has been up every night to look -for that lantern, and he says he feels easier if he don't see it." - -"You tell him not to worry. We are very comfortable. A person might -live there a century and nothing happen to them." - -Notwithstanding this assertion about the safety of century-serving -keepers, Bart would sometimes steal out in the dark and climb the bare, -lonely hill. Then he would search the black horizon. - -"There's the reg'lar light," he would say, "but I don't see anything -more. All right!" - - - - - XV. - - _THE STORM GATHERING._ - - -There was a tongue of land not far from the lighthouse known as "Pudding -Point." How long the water-trip to it might be depended upon the state -of the tide. In the immediate vicinity of the lighthouse there was, in -the direction of this Pudding Point, such an accumulation of sandy -ridges that at low-water the voyage was only a quarter of a mile. At -high tide all the yellow flats were covered, and an oarsman must pull -his boat across half-a-mile of water to go from the light to the point. -Sometimes Dave had occasion to visit Pudding Point. A few houses were -there, and they might be able to supply an article needed at the light, -and that would save a trip to Shipton. One sunny morning Dave had rowed -over from the light, and was drawing his boat up the sands, when he -noticed a familiar figure striding along a ridge beyond the beach. It -was a person of handsome carriage, and one well aware of it. - -"I should know that form anywhere," said Dave. "Hollo, Dick!" he -shouted. - -Dick Pray came running down a sandy slope and gave Dave his hand. - -"I am trying to hunt up Thomas Trafton," said Dave. "I believe he has a -fish-house around here, hasn't he?" - -"You'll find him on that ledge a little way back." - -Dave hunted up the fish-house--a black, weather-beaten box. Thomas -Trafton was spreading fish on the long fish-flakes in the rear of his -humble quarters. - -"That you, Dave?" asked the fisherman. "I thought I saw you down on the -shore a half-hour ago." - -"I was over at the light half-an-hour ago." - -"Then it was Timothy Waters." - -"How so?" - -"Don't you know that if one takes a back view of you and Timothy, -although he is really older than you by half-a-dozen years, it wouldn't -be easy to tell you apart? Let me see. You are twenty-one?" - -"So they say at home." - -"Timothy is twenty-seven at least.' - -"And I look like Timothy?" - -"Rear view only, and I can only tell it is him if in walking he throws -his arms out. You never do that." - -"I am not anxious to resemble Timothy Waters. I thought he was at sea." - -"Off and on. He is now, I suppose, in that craft off in the stream." - -"The _Relentless_?" - -"That's the one. I know I am glad to be out of her. My health improved -steadily after quitting her. I am going to be at home, fishing, this -season." - -"How do they all do at home?" - -"Oh, comfortable." - -"Bart is getting to be a big boy, isn't he?" - -"Yes, he is. He thinks a good deal of you. Now, you know that habit he -got into once--" - -"What was that?" - -"Of taking my spy-glass and going out to look at the lighthouse at -night--" - -"To see if I had hung out a lantern because we were disabled--by -sickness, you know, or something of the kind?" - -"That is it. Well, his granny says he hasn't wholly dropped it now. -She will see him go out, and when he comes back she will say, -'Anything?' 'Nothing,' he will say." - -"Oh, I guess there never will be any need of his looking." - -"No, I s'pose not; but it shows his interest." - -"Yes; I am thankful for that.--Well, let us have a fish to broil; have -come out for that." - -Dave received his fish, paid for it, and very soon turned away, striding -off energetically in the direction of his boat. - -When Dave returned to the lighthouse, the tide, gradually dropping, had -uncovered the rocky foundations, and the water was playing with the -fringes of seaweed all about the rocks. - -"How gracefully that seaweed rises and falls! Those curves of its -motion are very delicate.--Hollo! what is that?" he asked. - -Looking at the foundations, he saw in a crevice a little object that was -not a lump of rock-weed or a rock, and what was it? - -"A pocket-book!" said Dave, leaning out of his boat and picking up this -relic tightly wedged between the stones. "I'll look at that when I get -up into the kitchen." - -Reaching the kitchen, he hastily opened the pocket-book, noticed that it -was empty, and then placed it to dry on a shelf. It was very peaceful -in the kitchen, and the stove purred and the clock ticked contentedly -and quietly as ever. But where was the light-keeper? his assistant -wondered. - -"Upstairs probably," was the thought in reply; and yet this -consideration, reasonable as it might seem at the moment, did not -dispose of the question wholly. True, in a lighthouse, where one might -say if a man were not downstairs he must be upstairs, that he could not -be "out in the yard" or "in the cellar," Dave's conclusion seemed to be -correct. He felt, however, a peculiar sense of loneliness. If Dave -were a person given to moods, if he were likely to be sombre, he might -have said it was only a fancy; but for one of his temperament that was -unusual. Dave with reason had been somewhat worried about his -principal. Toby Tolman was growing old. It had been in certain -quarters openly said that he was too old for his position. He had been -such an efficient keeper, and he had as his assistant a man so valuable, -that no one cared to make an effort to remove him from his position. -The person who would probably be benefited by any change, and would be -invited to take charge of the light, was David Fletcher, and he would -not move, for that reason, against his kind old friend. Dave had worked -all the harder to fill up any deficiencies on the part of his principal, -and the principal would doubtless have been invited to step out if his -assistant had not worked so hard to keep him in. Often Dave noticed an -indisposition in the light-keeper to attend to that fraction of the -duties of the place falling to him, and Dave rightly attributed the -indisposition to inability. During the watch-hours belonging to the -keeper his assistant had sometimes found him asleep, and when the -rest-hours belonging to the keeper arrived, he would unduly prolong his -sleep in the morning, and neglect duties to which he had hitherto given -prompt attention. Dave also noticed that Mr. Tolman lingered at an -unusual length over his Bible. It would be an exceedingly good sign if -it could be said of many people that they spent twice as much time as -previously with their Bibles; but when a man usually giving to this -habit an hour and a half may take three hours, neglecting other daily -duties, there may be occasion for inquiry into the change. The -light-keeper did not himself notice this peculiarity about to be -mentioned, and yet any one seeing the passages read would have -appreciated it. The keeper now found unusual comfort in the psalms that -spoke of God as a hiding-place, a refuge, a high tower. Was he like the -mariner who sees the storm pressing him closely and hastens to find the -harbour where he can let fall each straining sail, like the tired bird -that drops its wings because it has found its nest? - -Dave had other reason for worry. There were in circulation mysterious -stories that everything in the administration of the lighthouse at Black -Rocks was not satisfactory. There were sly whisperings that goods -belonging to Government were given out to others by the keepers, but -when, where, and why, nobody said. There was only the repeated story of -a mysterious disappearance of Government property. Several friends of -Dave tried to catch and hold these rumours. Catch them they did, but -hold them they could not. They were like birds that you may think are -yours, but when you turn them into a room, lo, they fly out of an open -window in the opposite direction. - -Thomas Trafton was very indignant. - -"Look here!" he said with a reddened face to a fisherman repeating some -of these charges, "who told you that?" - -"Almost everybody." - -"Name one." - -"Well, Timothy Waters was one." - -"Timothy Waters, a man that had trouble at the light! You wait before -you believe the story." - -"But others have said the same thing." - -"Well, wait; I am going to track these stories to their start." - -Thomas Trafton imagined that he was a hunter, and like one following up -the trail of an animal, he endeavoured to track these slanders back to -their den. Sometimes he would follow the accusations back to Timothy -Waters, and then somebody else would be found to assert them, and so the -trail would start away again. Amid the multitude of tracks, but without -evidence of their origin, this hunter from the Trafton family was -bewildered. He mentioned the affair to Dave, feeling that here was an -innocent person whom others were attacking, and yet he might be entirely -ignorant of the assault. - -"I--I--don't want to make you uneasy, but I feel friendly more than you -can imagine," said Thomas, "and I thought you ought to know about the -stories that are going round." - -"Oh, I suppose people are always talking. Life would be dreadful dull -if there wasn't something to talk about; and if I save the world from -dulness I may flatter myself that I am doing some good." - -"Oh, but it isn't just gossip." - -"Isn't?" replied Dave, taking a hint from Thomas - -Trafton's significant look more than from any language. "What is it -then?" - -"Now, I don't believe it, mind ye. I try to stop it, but it is like -trying to stop a sand-piper on the beach without a gun. Running after -it don't bring it." - -"Well, what is it? I know you wouldn't believe anything unfair, but I -am bothered to know what it is." - -"Why--and I thought you had better know it--they say things belonging to -Government are given out from the lighthouse: 'misappropriated'--I -believe that is the word." - -"Long word! Well, who says it?" asked Dave sternly. - -"Oh, I'm sorry to say I've heard a good many tell it who ought to know -better." - -"It is all a lie! Misappropriation! That good man Toby Tolman--as if -he would do such a thing! Why, any one with a head might know better. -Toby never would do it!" - -"Of course he wouldn't, nor you neither. That is not the p'int, but how -to stop 'em?" - -Dave was silent. Then he broke out,-- - -"Who has mentioned it?" - -Thomas mentioned the fisherman he had recently confronted and rebuked. -Then he added,-- - -"I have tried to run the story down to its hole. It don't seem to start -with him, for he says somebody told him, and--" - -"Who is that?" - -"Timothy Waters." - -"Indeed!" - -"Now, I want to know how to stop the story." - -"You let me think it over, Thomas. I am much obliged to you." - -"I am real sorry to tell you," replied Thomas, "but I thought you ought -to know of it, and I'll stand by you and Toby to--the last." - -This conversation was only three days before Dave's visit to Pudding -Point. Thomas had said if anything new turned up he would report to -Dave. "Nothing," he had said to Dave during that call at the -fish-house, looking significantly at him. - -"I understand," replied Dave, "and I have nothing. All I can do is to -grin and bear it." - -To suit the act to the sentiment, he gave a smile with compressed lips. -It was a rather grim smile. - -Dave was thinking of the unpleasant subject continually. What added to -his burden was the conviction that he did not think it would be wise to -tell his principal, for he suspected--and he judged rightly--that it -would do no good, that it would only grieve the light-keeper, and that -this burden of grief he was not just then in a condition to easily -carry. - -"I am acting for two," he said to himself, "and that makes it all the -harder. If it were just one, just myself, I could seem to tell what to -do; but I think it would do an injury to the old man to tell him now; -and what shall I do? I guess I must take the advice of that psalm to -myself." - -He had in mind the close of the twenty-seventh psalm, read the night -before: "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen -thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord." And this was Dave's comment on -the verse: "I can rest on that promise. I was not aware when a man -didn't know what to do, which way to turn, that this psalm could help -and rest one like that." - -So Dave, like many pilgrims perplexed and tired, came to the shadow of -the mountain-promises of God. and there comforted his soul in the -assurance that God thought of him, loved him, and would strengthen him. -He needed this comfort when he returned to the lighthouse, after his -visit to Thomas Trafton's fish-house, and missed the keeper. - -"I will go upstairs to find him," he said. - -How hard and heavy was the sound of his footsteps as he ascended the -first flight of stairs leading from the kitchen! Dave went up as if he -were carrying a burden. He pushed open the door at the head of the -stairway and looked into the keeper's room, anxiously and yet timidly, -as if desirous to find him and yet afraid. - -"Ah, there he is," thought Dave. - -He was lying on his bed, his eyes closed. - -"Is he asleep?" wondered Dave. He stepped to the bed. - -"Yes, he must be asleep. Shall I speak to him?" - -He hesitated. He wanted to wake him and make sure that an ugly -suspicion was without foundation. - -He watched the old man's breast, and saw a movement there as of a -pulsation of the heart. He held his hand before the keeper's mouth. - -"Yes, I feel his warm breath. It must be sleep, and yet--" - -He paused. He did not like to express in language what he could not -help in thought. - -"I will not disturb him," he finally said, "for it may be only just -sleep. I will wait, any way, till after dinner." - -Deferring and still suspecting, he went downstairs. The kitchen had not -changed, and yet it seemed a different place. The clock and the fire -now made discordant noises. The sunshine that fell through the window -and rested on the floor seemed not so much to bring the light as to show -how empty and comfortless the place was. He felt lonelier than ever, -this man that people outside suspected of theft, who was cut off from -the sympathy of the man suspected with him. He was like one of the -ledges in the sea, so isolated, so much by itself, upon which the waves -beat without mercy, without rest. In that hour what society, sympathy, -strength, he found in the psalms!--a face to smile upon him, a voice to -cheer, and a hand to uplift. - - - - - XVI. - - _THE STORM STRIKING._ - - -After dinner Dave mounted the stairway leading to the keeper's room. - -"Still sleeping," thought Dave, lingering on the threshold and -hesitating to go forward. He advanced, though, in a moment, for he was -startled at the keeper's appearance. It was like an intermittent stupor -rather than the continued unconsciousness of sleep. Dave touched the -keeper, and he found the temperature to be that of a high fever. At -times the old light-keeper would start and open his eyes, and when Dave -left the room to search the pantry for some simple remedy on the -medicine-shelf, he found on his return that his patient had left his bed -and was standing by the narrow window in the thick stone walls. He -murmured something about "storm," about the "light," and suffered Dave -to lead him back to bed. - -"I must look out how I leave him again," thought Dave; and yet how could -he manage the case alone? - -"I must have help," he said, "and soon as I have a chance I must hang a -signal out at the door. Perhaps some one will call, and I'll wait before -showing the signal." - -Nobody came. Why should they come because suspecting any trouble? The -afternoon was pleasant. The sea broke gently upon the stone walls of the -lighthouse, and the sun shed its quiet glow like some benediction of -peace upon the sea. It was the very afternoon when a spectator would be -likely to conclude that the lighthouse was in no need of help. - -"I'll go now," at last concluded Dave. "He is asleep; his fever is -running lower. I will step to the door of the signal-tower, and throw -out a white sheet there, and somebody may see it." - -Nobody came, and yet here was a man who might be dangerously sick. At -the hour of sunset he ran up to the lantern and lighted the lamp. He -quickly descended, saying to himself, "How glad I am that it is not -foggy! So much to be thankful for! How could I start that signal! But -it won't do to try to get through the night in this fashion. What, what -can I do?" - -The twilight thickened; the shadows trailed longer, broader, and darker -folds across the sea. Dave sat alone with the sick man, who moaned as -if in pain. - -"I have it!" he suddenly exclaimed, recalling what Thomas Trafton told -him. "I can do one thing more. I'll hang the lantern out from the -tower; maybe Bart will possibly see it." - -Watching his chance when the keeper was less uneasy, he ran downstairs, -lighted a lantern, and then suspended it outside a window on the -landward side of the tower. The cool air of the sea blew refreshingly -on his heated face as he leaned out. - -"The air feels good; but I can't stop here," said Dave, hurrying away -and returning to the keeper's room. "There! I have done all I could, -and now--" - -There came to him again the words of the psalmist, "Wait on the Lord: be -of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on -the Lord." - -He could rest on that promise. He was beginning to find out what God -could be in the time of trouble. Friends might fail him; on every side -there might be an emptiness, a loneliness. All about him settled the -presence of God, filling up this solitude, this waste, this night. He -could lean on God and--wait. Others might suspect his integrity. He -knew he was not guilty, and he welcomed the thought of God's -knowledge--that God saw to the bottom of his heart, and into the depths -of his life, and God knew he was innocent. Yes, he could wait. - -That evening Thomas Trafton, his old mother, and Bart sat around the -little table of pine on which the kitchen lamp had been placed. The -father was telling where he had been that day and whom he had seen. - -"Dave Fletcher was down at the fish-house to-day. He spoke, Bart, of -your looking through the spy-glass, but he did not think it necessary." - -"Did he speak of it?" said Bart eagerly. "I have a great mind to--" - -"To go out?" asked his father--"to go out and see? Oh, nonsense! No -more need of it than my going to Australia." - -"Oh, let him go if he wants to," pleaded the grandmother; and the father -assented. - -Bart reached up to the spy-glass resting on a shelf, took it down, and -seizing his hat also, hurried outdoors. He was going through the yard, -when he saw somebody stealing away from a shed in the rear of the house. - -"Why, if that don't look like Dave Fletcher himself!" thought Bart. -"Dave Fletcher!" he shouted. - -Whoever it was--and the form certainly did resemble Dave's--he made no -reply, but hurried through the yard down into the street. - -"Somebody else, I suppose!" murmured Bart. "Wonder what he wanted! -Perhaps it was one of the fishermen who wanted to leave something for -father. Can't stop to see now." - -He hurried to the top of the hill, raised his glass, and pointed it -toward the lighthouse. - -"Father!" he said, appearing the next minute in the kitchen, and -speaking hurriedly, "oh--oh--come here! and you--granny--and see if--" - -He said no more, for this was sufficient to startle his auditors, and -all three hastened up the hill. - -"You didn't see a second light at the lighthouse?" asked the father. - -"Yes, I did," replied Bart; "I know I did." - -"Guess you were mistaken," suggested granny. - -"No, I wasn't; you just look and see your--yourself." - -Granny could not see anything except a hazy glow where the lighthouse -might be supposed to stand. - -"Can't say I saw even that as well as I wanted to," she confessed to -herself. - -Thomas Trafton's keen eyes, though, detected a bright little star under -the light in the lantern of the sea-tower, and exclaimed, "No doubt -about it! Afraid there's trouble there, and--" - -"Could take our boat, father," said Bart eagerly, who had been already -planning for this emergency, "and pick up a doctor; for that is what the -signal must mean after what Dave told me, you know, and--and--" - -"We will go right off," said Thomas Trafton, in his quick, decided way. - -As they were rowing across the river to obtain the services of Dr. -Peters, Bart thought of the time, half-a-dozen years ago, when his quest -for the physician ended in a river-bath. - -"Dave Fletcher did a good thing for me then," thought Bart, "and I will -stand by him now." - -How he bent to his oars and made them bend in their turn! It was a -pleasure to be of some use in the world. - -It was that evening that the light-keeper came back for a moment to -consciousness, and looking steadily at Dave, said in a very serious tone -of voice, "How long have I been lying here?" - -"Oh, only since morning," replied his nurse, delighted to hear his -voice. "Now, you be quiet and tell me if you want anything--any -medicine you take when you are sick this way." - -Here the keeper's thoughts wandered again. He talked about the fog that -was coming, and a craft that was caught on the bar, and then, looking at -Dave steadily, said in a hesitating way, "Hadn't you better--put -it--back--Dave?" - -"Put back what, sir?" - -"What you--took? Let me--as a--friend--advise you." - -"Took?" - -The keeper lifted himself on his elbow and looked all around, as if -trying to find something. - -"David, don't hide it!" - -Then the keeper fell back upon his bed, and murmuring a few words -indistinctly, he was lost again in a stupor. He was no sooner quiet -than his assistant's quick ear caught the sound of steps and voices down -in the signal-tower; for all the doors this summer evening were open -between the keeper's room and the platform at the entrance of the -lighthouse. It was the arrival of Thomas Trafton's party, and Dr. Peters -was a member of it. If Dave felt that its coming was like the reaching -out of a hand that lifted him up and strengthened him, the words of the -keeper were like a hand smiting him down. - -What did Toby Tolman mean? - - - - - XVII. - - _THOMAS TRAFTON, DETECTIVE._ - - -"Well!" said Dr. Peters, after a night of careful watching of the -light-keeper's symptoms. He was a tall, elderly gentleman, with a very -smooth, melodious voice, its tones seeming to have been dipped in syrup. - -He began again,-- - -"Well, Mr. Fletcher, I think Mr. Tolman will recover from this. We -shall get him through." And when he spoke, Dr. Peters waved his hands -as if he had already disposed of this case and now passed it out of -sight. - -"However, Mr. Fletcher, the case will need careful watching, and you had -better take charge of it, unless his daughter might come down to relieve -you." - -"Possibly his granddaughter," thought Dave. - -"I don't think we can ever rely on Toby Tolman's resuming his old duties -here--might do a little something, you know--and you had better get -Thomas Trafton or some trusty man to help you. When will the inspector -be here?" - -"Our lighthouse inspector, Captain Sinclair, doctor?" - -"Yes." - -"In about a fortnight, perhaps sooner. The steamer that brings supplies -for the lighthouse will soon be here, and Captain Sinclair will come in -her, I think." - -"The inspector, to look after matters?" - -"Yes, sir. Of course I shall report what you say about the keeper to -headquarters at once." - -"I would. It is very important. And when Captain Sinclair comes, let -me know, please." - -"I will, sir." - -"Of course it is necessary that things should be inspected. I am glad -he is coming. Well to be careful." - -"What does he mean?" wondered Dave. "Has he got hold of those stories -about misappropriation? Well, when Captain Sinclair comes I hope he will -sift things to the bottom. I am not afraid of an investigation." - -Dave took satisfaction in the consciousness of his integrity; still it -was not pleasant to be suspected. It was Toby Tolman's mysterious -language, indicating that he too held Dave in some kind of suspicion, -which troubled Dave painfully. The day after Dr. Peters's visit the -light-keeper again referred to this mystery. He roused himself into a -state of seeming consciousness, and then relapsed. Again he awoke. He -looked around him and fastened his eyes on the top of a clothes-press in -the room. - -"What do you want, sir? Anything there that you want to put on?" asked -Dave. - -The keeper shook his head. Pointing at the top of the press, he said, -"Dave, I would put it back." - -"What do you mean? I don't understand you." - -The keeper, though, was gone again, murmuring about the tide, which he -said was very late, and when would it come in? He had been awake long -enough to cruelly wound Dave once more. - -Bart Trafton had gone home with Dr. Peters, rowing him to town in the -same dory that brought him to the light the night before. In two days -Bart was down again. As he sat in the kitchen eating some apple-pie -offered him by his father, he said, "Father, I found something in our -shed." - -"What was it, Bart?" - -Laying down his lunch, Bart drew out of a package a chronometer. - -"Found that in the shed?" asked the surprised father. - -"Yes, on a shelf." - -"Why, Bart, this has got the letters of our lighthouse on it. Must have -come from here. And in our shed! How did it get there? I must show -this to Dave," said Thomas Trafton. - -"Hush-sh!" exclaimed Dave, when his assistant entered the room; "Toby is -trying to get some sleep." - -"See here!" said Thomas, in low tones. "Must show you something." - -"I never saw it before," replied Dave, handling the chronometer. "It -belongs here, though. There are the initials. Where did you get it?" - -A stir among the bedclothes arrested the attention of the two men. Toby -Tolman had opened his eyes, and was looking at them. Something he saw -must have pleased him, for he smiled. - -"That is right, Dave. I am glad you brought it back. I would put it -up." - -"Where?" asked the astonished Dave, anxious to lay hold of any clue to a -serious mystery. - -"Up there." - -He pointed at the top of the clothes-press. The press was not a tall -one. Dave standing on tiptoe could reach to its top, and he now laid -the watch there. - -"Is that right?" asked Dave. - -The keeper nodded his head, and then closed his eyes, his face wearing a -satisfied expression foreign to it all through his sickness. - -"Is not that queer?" whispered Dave. "Some mystery that is too deep for -me." - -He beckoned Thomas and Bart out of the room, and then followed them -downstairs. - -"Now, how do you explain that?" asked Dave, as the three clustered about -the stove, whose heat that day was acceptable, for the air was chilly -and the wind was a prophet of storm. - -"Don't know," said Thomas. - -"I'd give this old pocket-book full of silver," declared Dave, "to have -that thing cleared up. It takes a load off my mind, I tell you. The -old man has been harping on the fact that I took something, and he has -been looking toward that old clothes-press in such a strange way. I -didn't know anything was up there. Did you see how he acted, smiled -about it?" - -"Where did you get this pocket-book?" asked Thomas. - -"The day that Toby was taken sick I picked it up among the rocks here. -I had been over at your fish-house, and found it when I was coming back. -Been in the water, you see." - -"Here are some letters on it--T.W." - -"That means Tobias Winkley or--" - -"Thomas Winkley. Can't prove it to be Thomas Trafton; and if you could -no money is in it. 'T.W.,' that is Timothy Watson." - -"Or Timothy Waters." - -"Yes; Timothy Waters, or anything that would go with those initials. -Toby Tolman wouldn't go." - -"Now I must go upstairs again to be with my patient." - -Dave Fletcher's heart was lighter as he went upstairs again, but the -burden now lightening on his shoulders seemed to be transferred to those -of Thomas Trafton. - -"Don't understand this!" he exclaimed. "Where is Bart? Bart!" - -There was no response to this call, and the father went downstairs into -the storeroom to hunt up Bart. - -"Nobody here. I'll go into the signal-tower," said Thomas; and up in -the engine-room, looking soberly out of a window fronting the breakers -on the bar, stood Bart. - -"You here, Bart? What are you doing here?" - -"Thinking," said the boy gloomily. - -"What makes you so sober, Bart?" - -"Don't like to have folks suspected." - -"Neither do I. That old thing was found in our shed, but I don't know -anything about it." - -It relieved Bart to hear his father's stout assertion of innocence, but -his burdens had not all dropped. - -"You know they talk about Dave, father." - -"Well, you don't believe it?" - -How could Bart consent to take Dave Fletcher down from that high -pedestal to which he had elevated him? How could he believe that his -marble statue was after all only common clay, and even of an inferior -earth? - -"I won't believe it till it is proved," said Bart stoutly, "nor of you -either, father." - -This relieved Thomas Trafton. - -"Bart, you see if I don't turn this rascally thing over and get at the -truth! I'll find the mischief-maker; yes, I will." - -Thomas Trafton was by nature a detective. He put himself on the trail -of this mystery, and if a trained hound he could not have followed the -track more keenly and resolutely. He announced his purpose to Dave, and -the latter would ask him occasionally if he had any clue. - -"I am at work on it, still running. The scent is good, and I have -something of a trail. I'll tell you when I get through," was one reply -he made. - - - - - XVIII. - - _INTO A TRAP._ - - -"Cap'n Sinclair!" called out a voice. The man projecting the voice -stood up in a boat rocking gently in the harbour. The man addressed -stood in a small black steamer, the _Spitfire_, employed in conveying -supplies to the lighthouses. He leaned over the steamer's rail and -asked, "What is it?" - -"I suppose you remember me, Timothy Waters?" - -"Oh, that you, Waters?" - -"Yes. Could I see you?" - -"Here I am." - -Captain Sinclair was a middle-aged man, rather stout, wearing a -moustache, and flashing a friendly look out of his brown eyes. - -"I don't think I was fairly treated," said Timothy, "when I lost my -place in the lighthouse, and I wanted to make some explanations. -Besides me, you may have heard the stories all round about the goods -they are wasting at the light?" - -"Well, I have heard something," said the captain impatiently. "Somebody -wrote to me about it, but he wasn't man enough to sign his name. May -have been a woman, for all I know." - -"If you'd let me come aboard--" - -"Oh, you can come aboard; but I won't be here long. I must go into the -light, and the steamer is going off--at once. Just row over to the -lighthouse, and I'll talk with you there." - -Timothy turned away and shrugged his shoulders. He said to himself, "I -don't want to go in there. However, I think I saw Trafton and that -Fletcher rowin' off. I can stand the old man." He turned to the -captain and said in a fawning tone, "All right, cap'n. I want you to -have your say about it." - -When Captain Sinclair and Timothy entered the kitchen of the lighthouse, -to the surprise of Timothy he saw Trafton and Dave Fletcher. They had -"rowed off," and had also rowed back. Timothy was so unprepared for -their appearance that he would have allowed the opportunity for -presenting his cause to slip by unimproved. Dave Fletcher, though, was -ready to begin at once, and did so. - -"Captain Sinclair, be seated, please, and the rest of you. When you -were here yesterday I called your attention to certain charges made -against Mr. Tolman and myself that--" - -"Oh yes, I remember; and here is a letter full of them somebody sent to -me, but they were too cowardly to add any name. Let me have the -light-book. That will give me some of last year's records." - -Timothy was looking on in apparent unconcern, but really in -bewilderment, and wondering when his turn would come. He began to -address the inspector. - -"Cap'n--" - -Thomas was ahead of him, and by this time had said three words to -Timothy's one,-- - -"Cap'n Sinclair, I--Cap'n Sinclair, I have something to say. I think -the author of all this trouble is here. He"--pointing a finger at -Timothy--"came to this lighthouse, took a chronometer, carried it to -Shipton, left it in my shed--" - -[Illustration: "'Cap'n Sinclair, the author of all this trouble sits -there.'" _Page 195_]] - -This torrent of charges, so unexpected, swept away the statements -Timothy had prepared for Captain Sinclair. He attempted to stem the -torrent, and cried, "It is easy to say you know, cap'n"--Timothy tried -to be very bland, restraining his temper--"easy to say you know--" - -"I can say that he came to this lighthouse," Thomas broke out again, -"and when the keeper was lyin' sick on his bed--asleep, as he thought, -is my guess--he took a chronometer--" - -Timothy, who had been curbing his temper, now threw away all reins. - -"Where is the keeper?" he asked stormily. "I don't believe he can say -that." - -"Oh, he is upstairs, and well enough to see us. The doctor says he is -doing well. And walk up, gentlemen," said Dave, "walk up!" - -Bart was reading to the old man, who was seated in a rocking-chair near -his bed. The company almost filled the little room, but the -light-keeper bade them welcome. - -"Mr. Tolman," said Thomas, "won't you tell Cap'n Sinclair what you told -me about the taking of the chronometer?" - -"Oh yes," said the old light-keeper slowly. "I was feeling very sick, -so much so that I concluded to lie down. I s'pose I was lying with my -eyes 'most shut, when I heard a step and saw a man come in, and he -looked at me, and then he stood on a chair, examined the top of that -clothes-press, and took down a chronometer--an old thing, but it might -be fixed up. The man thought I was asleep, and I didn't see his face, -only it seemed to me as if he had whiskers, and when he stood on a chair -to reach the chronometer he looked--standing with his back to me---as if -it was Dave Fletcher. Well, I was that weak I couldn't speak, and my -visitor went off, supposing, I daresay, that I was asleep. Well, I kept -it on my mind, forgetting the whiskers, that it was Dave, and I charged -him with it. Sorry I did--" - -"Well," said Timothy fiercely, "why wasn't it Fletcher? It is about -time that innocent chap should do something." - -"He says--Mr. Tolman says," observed Captain Sinclair, "that you and -Fletcher look alike." - -"Wall," bawled Timothy, "why couldn't it have been Fletcher much as me, -don't you see? Come you--you feller--you stand by this clothes-press -and reach up, and let's see how you look." - -"This 'feller' is ready," said Dave, going to the clothes-press and -reaching to its top. - -"And here I am. Why ain't it him?" asked Timothy, also standing by the -press and reaching up. - -"They do look alike when their backs are turned toward us," observed -Captain Sinclair. - -"Only the keeper said the one he saw had whiskers, and there are -Timothy's," remarked Thomas. - -Dave wore only a moustache. Thomas's remark called the attention of -everybody to Timothy's whiskers, projecting like wings from his cheeks. -These wings were red, but their colour was not as vivid as that of -Timothy's face. - -"Besides," continued Thomas, "Dave wasn't here. He can prove an alibi. -He was over at Pudding P'int; came to get a fish from me." - -"Why," said Timothy indignantly, "I was--two miles away." - -"I saw you round the shore myself; and here is your pocket-book that -Dave found at the foot of the light-tower that very morning." - -Timothy opened his eyes, swelled up his cheeks, puffed, declared he -didn't see how that was, "and--and--" - -Here Bart interrupted his stammering, and said,-- - -"And I saw you up at our shed that evening. I thought it was Dave -Fletcher, taking a back view; but when I called 'Dave!' there was no -answer to it;--and, Dave, you'd speak if I called, wouldn't you?" - -"I think I would." - -"This other person that looked like you didn't say a word." - -Timothy puffed and protested and denied, growing redder and redder. - -"See here, Waters," said Captain Sinclair: "I have been looking at the -lighthouse records last year, and I have hunted up places where you have -written, and the style is like this in the letter I received--that -anonymous one--about the charges against the keepers in the lighthouse. -You come up into the room above with me." - -Stuttering in his confusion, still asserting his innocence, blushing, he -stumbled up the stairway, and then alone with Captain Sinclair he was -urged to make a clean breast of it. - -"Yes," said the captain, "tell the whole story; for there is enough -against you to shut you up in quarters of stone, and it won't be a -lighthouse." - -Timothy was startled by this. He broke down, and made a full confession -to the inspector. - - - - - XIX. - - _A PLACE TO STOP._ - - -Here is a place to bring into a harbour our story drifting on like a -boat. Dave Fletcher was appointed keeper of the light at Black Rocks, -and Thomas Trafton became his assistant. Bart, though, said he -considered himself to be second assistant, and should fit himself as -rapidly as possible for a keeper. He wanted, he added, to be as useful -as he could be--an idea that never forsook him since the old days of his -career as Little Mew. Dick Pray went on in the old style, full of plans -and projects, stirred by an intense ambition to do some big thing, but -impatient of the little things necessary to the execution of the whole. -Always ready to dare, he was as uniformly averse to the doing of the -hard work that might be demanded. - -Toby Tolman took up his quarters in his old home ashore. As he could -not go where Dave was, he said he thought Dave ought to come to him as -often as possible. Dave promised to do all in his power, and as a -pledge of his sincerity he married the light-keeper's granddaughter, -black-eyed, bright-eyed May Tolman. She lived under Toby Tolman's roof; -and as Dave improved every opportunity to visit the grand-daughter, he -was able to fulfil his promise made to the grandfather. - - - - - THE END. - - - - - ---- - - - - - - - Nelson's Books for Boys. - - -_The Books below are specially suitable for Boys, and a better selection -of well-written, attractively-bound, and beautifully-illustrated Gift -and Prize Books cannot be found. The list may be selected from with the -greatest confidence, the imprint of Messrs. Nelson being a guarantee of -wholesomeness as well as of interest and general good quality._ - - - _Many Illustrated in Colours._ - -"CAPTAIN SWING." Harold Avery. -HOSTAGE FOR A KINGDOM. F. B. Forester. -FIRELOCK AND STEEL. 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