The Light Keepers Part 2

"Why don't you go an' fix up my bed so's we can put him in it, Sammy?

What good do you suppose it does to stand 'round here first on one foot an' then on the other as if you was a brazen image?" Captain Eph demanded fiercely of his first a.s.sistant, and the latter ran up the spiral stairway, hurriedly, muttering something about the folly of treating a case such as the one in hand, before first studying the "rules and regerlations" to learn whether the Board had made any provisions for similar emergencies.

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

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

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

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

lad."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What does rule 56 of the regerlations say?" Mr. Peters asked in a low tone, as if afraid the involuntary visitor might overhear the words.

"Ain't it set down there that light keepers' dwellings shall not be used as pilot stations, nor as boardin' or lodgin' houses?"

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

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

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

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

"Well, that bein' the case, Sammy, after I've entered in the watch book an account of his comin' here, an' set down the fact that I count on keepin' the lad till somebody comes to claim him, I reckon it's n.o.body's business but mine an' the United States Government's. He's here, an'

here he stays, unless the inspector says he must be turned adrift, in which case I'll go with him."

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

CHAPTER II.

SIDNEY HARLOW.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"You look after the boy, an' I'll 'tend to things in the lantern," Mr.

Peters said as he wiped here and there with the buff-skin over imaginary specks of dust on the lens.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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