The Light Keepers Part 34

"What is the matter?" Sidney asked in surprise, not understanding why the announcement that the tender was coming toward the ledge should have so startled the two men.

"Matter, Sonny!" Captain Eph cried. "Why most likely the inspector is comin' on one of his reg'lar visits, an' what'll he say if he finds Uncle Zenas an' me off duty, so to speak?"

"I don't see why you need bother about him," Sidney began; but before he could finish the statement, Mr. Peters cried:

"Of course you don't, Sonny, 'cause you never was here when he overhauled everything on the ledge as if he expected we allers left 'em at sixes an' sevens."

"But he won't see anything to-day," Sidney continued. "Didn't you say we were storm-bound? If other people can't make a landing here, isn't he in just as bad a fix?"

Captain Eph leaned back in his chair and looked at the lad in astonishment, as he gasped:

"Wa'al, who'd thought that little shaver had more sense than all the rest of us put together? Of course the inspector can't make a landin', an' I don't understand why he has come out here, for he must have known what the weather was!"

"It's given me the worst scare I've had since I upset the kettle of lard!" Uncle Zenas exclaimed, leaning back on the bed as if after severe exertions.

"She's comin' out here jest the same," Mr. Peters said as he stood by the window which opened toward the mainland, "an' what is it they want?"

"You an' Sonny better show yourselves on the lantern gallery," Captain Eph suggested. "It won't take 'em long to find out that they can't step foot on Carys' Ledge this day; but it behooves us to make some signs of life."

Mr. Peters and Sidney ran up-stairs to obey this command. The lad had never been on the narrow gallery which ran around on the outside of what is known as the lantern-deck, and he experienced a decided sense of insecurity as he stepped on the narrow platform through one of the swinging windows of the lantern.

"You needn't walk so gingerly," Mr. Peters said with a laugh. "This 'ere would hold a hundred men as big as Uncle Zenas, an' I reckon your weight won't set it adrift. There's the steamer, an' it looks as if she was standin' on end 'bout half the time."

The little craft was indeed laboring in the heavy seas. More than once Sidney fancied that the tops of the waves were flung completely over her smoke-stack, and when she sank into the trough of the sea, it was as if she were bent on going to the bottom.

"I've yet got to guess why she's out here in this weather," Mr. Peters said half to himself, as he watched the steamer plunge and toss wildly when she was brought around parallel with the westerly side of the ledge. "They seem to know that there's no chance of makin' a landin,'

an' it looks as if they wanted to speak to us."

Then the first a.s.sistant waved his arms wildly, and shouted at the full strength of his lungs:

"Ahoy! What's the matter?"

It was probable that the wind carried his words down to the steamer; but when a man emerged from the wheel-house with a megaphone, and evidently made some reply, it was as if he were indulging in a pantomime, for not a sound came to the ears of those on the tower.

"I can't hear you," Mr. Peters shouted, repeating the words again and again until he was literally red in the face, and the man on the steamer evidently replied again; but it was as if he had not spoken.

"I'm gettin' tired of this fool business," Mr. Peters said irritably.

"Why didn't they stay at home?"

"Perhaps some one saw the smoke of the fire, and sent word that the tower was burned," Sidney suggested, and then Mr. Peters shouted, using his hands as a trumpet:

"We're all right here! Nothin' the matter with us!" and he added in a lower tone, "It's no use to try an' make 'em understand that Cap'n Eph an' Uncle Zenas are off duty, for they couldn't hear me."

Once more the man with the megaphone shouted, and then the bow of the little steamer was headed landward, the steam which escaped from the whistle-valve telling that she had saluted.

"If that ain't a leetle the biggest wild goose chase I ever heard of, then my name's Benjamin, which it ain't!" Mr. Peters exclaimed as he led the way inside the lantern, and when the window had been carefully closed, he asked sharply:

"What sent 'em out here on a day like this?"

"I can't tell you," Sidney replied with a laugh, and at that moment the voice of Captain Eph could be heard from below:

"Ahoy, Sammy! Are you goin' to stay there all day?"

It seemed as if the first a.s.sistant was about to make an impatient reply, as in the days before he had deceived his comrades; but he checked himself ere the first word was uttered, and replied:

"We're comin', Captain Eph. I only wanted to make certain everythin' was ship-shape up here."

Then the two descended the stairs, and they were yet on the floor above the kitchen when Captain Eph shouted again:

"What did they say to you?"

"That's what I wish I knew," the first a.s.sistant said emphatically, as he entered the kitchen. "Somebody danced 'round a good bit; but with this wind blowin' dead in his teeth, we couldn't hear so much as a single yip from him."

"But what did he want?" Uncle Zenas asked impatiently. "He must have been after something to come out here when he knew he couldn't land."

Again Mr. Peters was about to make an impatient reply, and again he checked himself in time, replying mildly:

"There was no show for me to find out what he wanted so long as I couldn't hear a word he said. He's gone now, though, an' I wish he hadn't come, for it's mixed us all up."

"Wa'al, if it was important business, an' I reckon it must have been else the steamer wouldn't have come out in this wind, they'll have another try at it in better weather, an' perhaps by that time, Uncle Zenas, we'll be able to toddle 'round a little."

"I'm countin' on bein' as spry as ever in a couple of days more," the second a.s.sistant said proudly, "an' it looks now as if this 'ere blow would last that long."

During the remainder of this day the only conversation indulged in was concerning the coming of the tender. Each of the keepers in turn had some theory, more or less plausible, to account for the visit, but nothing was presented that satisfied all, until Sidney said timidly:

"Perhaps some word has come from my father, and whoever was in the boat came out to see if I was still here."

"Sonny is right!" Captain Eph cried emphatically. "We're nothin'

better'n three old fools, to be guessin' this an' that unlikely thing, while he, with more brains in his little finger than the whole of us can muster, comes up an' tells the facts. Of course that was why the tender came out here, an' we'll see her again before many days. Sammy, I'm goin' to make a try at gettin' up-stairs, so's there will be one bed less in this kitchen, an' we'll see if things can't be pulled 'round as they ought'er be 'cordin' to the rules an' regerlations."

"I can't make out why everything ain't that way now," Mr. Peters interrupted. "The lantern couldn't be any cleaner, an' I'm sure there's nothin' wrong with havin' beds down here when we've got to have a hospital somewhere."

"I'm not sayin', Sammy, that you an' Sonny haven't done wonders; but yet you know that the light isn't run as it should be, when the keeper an'

his second a.s.sistant take up their quarters in the kitchen. We'll have all that changed, though, before this time to-morrow, even if you have to rig up a block an' tackle to send me into my room."

Sidney was almost sorry because he had guessed so nearly to what Captain Eph believed was the truth. Until that moment he had been well content so long as the invalids continued to improve; but now he was feverishly eager to know if his father had sent any message, and, if so, what it was.

Restlessly the lad wandered from one window to another, looking out in the hope of seeing some indication that the wind was subsiding, until Captain Eph said:

"Come here, Sonny, an' make yourself contented. I can give a guess as to how you're fussin', an' it's all wrong. You ought'er be feelin' mighty good because we've reason to believe your father knows where you are, an' there'll be no harm done if you don't hear what he's got to say for two weeks to come. S'posen he's sent a message, which I don't believe he has, for you to come to Porto Rico, what good would it do you to know it, seein's how you can't get off this 'ere ledge till the sea goes down? It's foolish to fret over what can't be helped. Tell me, did you ever hear of a light called Barnegat?"

"Indeed I have," the lad replied, surprised at this sudden turn in the conversation.

"Wa'al, did you ever hear why it had that name?"

"I suppose because it is near the New Jersey town of Barnegat."

"That may be, Sonny; but in the book you've been readin' lately are some verses tellin' how it got the name. Of course they ain't true; but there's a good deal of fun in 'em. Bring me the book an' I'll show you where they are."