The Light Keepers Part 13

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peters:

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

affairs."

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

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

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

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

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

"The amount of it is that we go ash.o.r.e so seldom folks think nothin'

less'n an earthquake would fetch us out, an' that's why they're so terribly curious," Mr. Peters said in a thoughtful tone, and Captain Eph asked sharply:

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

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

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

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

"It's all owin' to when a letter can get there, Sonny. You may make up your mind that the Board will send word the quickest way possible, an'

we've done the wisest thing by sendin' off the report, for we might wait six months--perhaps more--before we could speak a craft bound to Porto Rico."

"What's the matter with the inspector's telegraphin' to Sonny's father?"

Mr. Peters asked suddenly, and the keeper started in surprise as this possibility was suggested.

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

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

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

"Indeed I'd be only too glad if I could stay at the light all winter,"

Sidney said earnestly; "but I can't bear to think that father is feeling very, very bad believing I may be drowned."

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

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

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

CHAPTER VII.

A LESSON ON BUOYS.

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

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

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

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

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

"h.e.l.lo! What seems to be creepin' over you?"

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