The Light Keepers Part 37

By the time he had made the block fast to the timber, Uncle Zenas began to have some idea of the plan, and he cried approvingly:

"You've got a great head, Ephraim, an' I reckon that's why you're so set in your ways. Sammy can stray off quite a bit from the tower, with us to look after him."

"Yes, an' the tide is fallin'," Mr. Peters added as he continued his work of making ready by taking off his coat and vest, and wrapping one end of the line with an old coat.

"There's no need of your goin' out yet a while, Sammy," Captain Eph said as he noted the first a.s.sistant's movements.

"I was allowin' that we'd better give the contrivance a try while we had time, so's to make certain it would work smooth."

This seemed a reasonable precaution, and Captain Eph knotted the padded rope around the first a.s.sistant's body, after which the window overlooking the eastern side of the ledge was opened, and Mr. Peters clambered up on the sill.

The keeper and Uncle Zenas, sitting near each other, hauled the line taut as it ran through the block, and when Mr. Peters swung himself off the sill of the window, they lowered him slowly to the rocks below.

Sidney, standing near by, could see the first a.s.sistant as he went boldly into the surf, and, as the waves carried him from his feet, the two men in the kitchen readily pulled him backward and upward until it was possible for him to regain his footing.

"It's a good plan, Uncle Zenas," Captain Eph said approvingly; "but I allow that Sammy stands a chance to get more or less skin sc.r.a.ped off of him if we're called upon to do the job in a hurry."

"He won't know it until the job is done, an' then we'll have plenty of time to patch him up. Sonny, s'pose you get the gla.s.ses, an' keep your eye on the dory."

When Sidney returned to the kitchen with the gla.s.ses in his hand, Mr.

Peters had just been hauled up through the window, and was standing by the stove while the water, unheeded by Uncle Zenas, ran in streams from his garments to the floor.

It was now possible to see the oncoming dory plainly with the naked eye, for she was hardly more than a mile away, and drifting rapidly toward the ledge; but by the aid of the gla.s.ses the lad could make out plainly the forms of the two occupants, one of whom appeared to be crouching in the bow with his head above the rail as if watching, while the other lay without movement in the stern.

"She couldn't make a better course for this 'ere ledge if the best sailor who ever walked a plank was steerin' her," Captain Eph said as he looked seaward. "She'll strike nearabout the cove, an' the question is whether Sammy can get that far before bein' knocked down."

"Don't be in too big a hurry to pull me out, an' I'll get mighty near to those fellows, if so be the dory strikes anywhere near where we're expectin'," Mr. Peters said as he came toward the window. "We won't be havin' any too much time, if I start now," and he stepped out of the window, clutching the sill until the two at the rope were ready to lower him away.

Sidney no longer held the gla.s.ses to his eyes. It was possible to see everything plainly by this time, and, breathing heavily because of his excitement, the lad watched intently the movements of the boat, which now seemed to be close upon the rocks.

The man in the bow was standing up, having seen Mr. Peters' descent from the window, and understanding how a rescue was to be effected, if indeed such should prove to be the case.

Tossing on the crest of a wave, and then disappearing entirely in the trough of the sea, the dory pitched and staggered onward, coming as straight as an arrow for the tower, despite the plunging and rolling.

The man in the bow stepped toward the stern and appeared to be trying to drag the other to his feet; but it was as if he clutched one from whom life had already departed, and, with a gesture of despair, he went forward to the extreme bow.

Mr. Peters had made his way over the rocks to the very line of surf, and stood there until the moment should come for the supreme effort, while Uncle Zenas and Captain Eph watched his every movement closely, prepared to slacken the rope or haul in as should be necessary when the battle with the waves was begun. Nearly in the center of the room, but where he could see all that took place, Sidney stood, his eyes fixed on the boat while his hands were clenched as if by much straining of the muscles he might aid in the coming struggle.

Then the dory was raised high in the air by a huge comber, and Mr.

Peters ran swiftly forward, knowing when that crest of water fell, the frail craft would be dashed upon the rocks.

There was an instant of agonizing suspense, and then the brave light keeper was lost to view amid the swirl of water and foam.

While one might have counted ten, neither men nor boat could be distinguished in the turmoil, and then came a sudden jerk on the line as the undertow carried Mr. Peters seaward, when Captain Eph shouted hoa.r.s.ely:

"Haul! Haul for your life, Zenas!" and Sidney grasped the line, putting forth all his strength with the keepers, that their comrade might the more quickly be drawn to the surface.

The strain upon the rope seemed to be enormous; it was quite as much as the three could do to gather in any of the length, and Captain Eph was muttering half to himself that the line was not sufficiently large to bear the weight, when Uncle Zenas cried excitedly:

"He's got one of 'em! He's got one, an' what's more, the little runt looks as if he was all right. Sammy Peters isn't anybody's fool, an'

that's a living fact!"

Now the rope came in more readily, and as the three hauled, more gently after a time lest their comrade be dragged too roughly across the jagged rocks, Mr. Peters staggered to his feet as he held close to his breast the man whose life he had saved at the peril of his own.

"The waves won't bother him now; don't do any more than take in the slack!" Captain Eph cried, and, raising his voice, he shouted as the wind lulled for an instant, "What about the other one, Sammy?"

"He was the same as dead before the boat struck, so this fellow tells me, leastways, I didn't see anything of him," Mr. Peters replied as he staggered onward toward the tower, and when he reached the base it could be seen that he was unfastening the rope from his body.

"What's goin' on now?" Captain Eph demanded.

"I'll send this man up first, for I ain't sure as he has got strength enough left to make himself fast," Mr. Peters replied, and a moment later he gave the word, "Haul away!"

"Stand by to fend off, Sonny," Uncle Zenas cried, and just as Sidney stepped to the window in obedience to the command, the head of the rescued man appeared above the sill.

Sidney screamed shrilly as if in terror, and the stranger gave every evidence of fear while he seemed to shrink back, until Captain Eph cried sharply:

"What's the matter with you, Sonny? Why don't you bear a hand? There's nothin' to be afraid of; you've seen sailors who were in worse shape than he is."

"It frightened me because he looked so much like Mr. Sawyer," the lad said hesitatingly as he went to the window again, and the stranger cried hoa.r.s.ely:

"Are you Sidney Harlow?"

"Hold hard, matey!" Captain Eph said, shaking the rope as if to attract the rescued man's attention. "I don't allow that it's the proper time, while you're strung up here on the end of a line, to do very much tongue-waggin', leastways, if it is, I'd rather somebody else held turn.

s.h.i.+n in, an' be quick about it, for we can't afford to let the only sound keeper we've got on this 'ere light freeze to death on your account."

The stranger clambered over the window-sill, unfastened the rope from his body, and flung the free end down to Mr. Peters, after which he took Sidney's face in both his hands, as he asked again:

"Are you Sidney Harlow?"

"Of course I am; but you can't be Mr. Sawyer?"

"Why not, lad?"

"Because he was drowned. I saw him sink!"

"Ay, lad, but he came up within reach of the wreckage we went out to look at. Again and again I yelled while you were cruising around expecting to see me come to the surface near where I had disappeared; but you didn't hear me, and then the fog shut down again. I gave myself up for lost; but within an hour two fishermen in a dory blundered along, and took me to their vessel three or four miles away. There was no such thing as finding the _West Wind_ while the sea was covered with fog so thick that it could almost be cut with a knife, and I've served an apprentices.h.i.+p as fisherman, eating my heart out because the skipper wouldn't put into port until he had a full fare."

Then Mr. Sawyer, one-time mate of the schooner _West Wind_, lifted Sidney in his arms as if he had been a baby, and covered his face with kisses, while Captain Eph and Uncle Zenas, regardless of the s.h.i.+vering first a.s.sistant on the rocks below, stared at the two in open-mouthed astonishment.

"Do you mean to tell me you're the sailorman who fell out of the motor boat, leavin' Sonny alone?" the old keeper cried as soon as the stranger had ceased caressing the lad.

"I'm the same one," Mr. Sawyer replied with a laugh, "an' it surely seems as if I wasn't born to be drowned, for this is the second time I've been rescued when the chances were big against me; but how does it happen that Sidney is here, and where is the _West Wind_?"

"If you people are countin' on spinnin' yarns, don't you think it would be a good idee to pull me in where I wouldn't freeze to death quite so soon?" Mr. Peters cried from the ledge beneath the window. "I don't want to be fussy; but I'd rather be behind the stove than out here."

"I declare if I hadn't forgot all about poor little Sammy!" Captain Eph cried in a tone of contrition. "He must be chilled clean through to the bone by this time. Haul in, Uncle Zenas, an' stand by for squalls when he gets here, 'cause his temper ain't of the best jest now, an' there's good reason for losin' it."

Two minutes later Mr. Peters clambered through the window, looking around for a moment, and then he said that which gave his comrades to understand that he had heard all Mr. Sawyer said: