The Light Keepers Part 25

"There won't be much to take away, Sammy," Captain Eph said grimly as Sidney steered the dory around the hulk that they might get a good view.

"The cargo has been washed out clean as a whistle, an' the decks swept till there's not so much as a belayin' pin to be seen. I don't reckon you count on strippin' off the forward riggin' single-handed, eh?"

"I had an idee we might pick up somethin' in the way of small timbers,"

Mr. Peters replied ruefully. "We'll be needin' considerable of that kind of stuff for our motor boat, when we get at her."

"I thought you had decided to put the motor in a dory?" Sidney said in surprise.

"That was what I had in mind till I talked with the machinist ash.o.r.e, an' now I think we may as well build a craft with a cabin, seein's we'll have plenty of time," and Mr. Peters searched the wreck with his eyes for such lumber as he believed might be needed in order to carry out his newly formed plan.

"All the light stuff would have been in the cabin, an' I'm allowin' that a good bit of it will be washed up on the ledge," Captain Eph said as he looked with a weatherly eye at the sky. "We're goin' to have the wind from the east'ard mighty soon, if signs count for anything, an' then's when you'll get all the lumber needed for half a dozen boats, though where it can be stored for the winter beats me."

"There's plenty of room in the boat-house on either side of the dory. It won't do any harm to fill up that s.p.a.ce, an' she'll lay more quiet when it's flooded," Mr. Peters suggested.

"We'll allow you're right, so far as that goes, Sammy, an' now if there's anythin' on the wreck that you believe is worth savin', s.h.i.+n aboard, for it's gettin' time we was back to the ledge."

Then Captain Eph pulled the dory in toward the wreck until it was possible for Mr. Peters to clamber on board at the expense of a thorough wetting, and while the keeper and Sidney waited in the dory, after she had been backed off at a safe distance, the lad said with more of decision in his tones than he ordinarily used when speaking to the old sailor:

"I was thinking while you were ash.o.r.e this forenoon, sir, that if I am to stay at the light until father gets back, it's time I made a change of sleeping quarters."

"Is there anything the matter with the bed you've got now, Sonny?"

Captain Eph asked anxiously.

"Nothing, except that it is yours, and I'm not willing to have you turned out any longer. I don't need a room all to myself, and you do, so there must be a change."

"I couldn't be any more comfortable than I am the way we've already fixed things, Sonny, an' it would do me a world of good to know I was givin' you somethin' nigh as fine as you'd get ash.o.r.e."

"Neither you nor I know how little I might have ash.o.r.e, sir, and I sha'n't feel contented so long as you are kept out of your own room."

"How would it do if Uncle Zenas could fix up another bed there? It seems to me we'd be snug an' cosy then," and Captain Eph's tone was much the same as if he had been asking a great favor.

"Then it would be all right, sir. What I want is, to know that you have the same chance for sleeping as before I came."

"I'll get Uncle Zenas to see what can be done this very night. You shall have half the shelves for your own things, an' we'll make it look mighty homelike, unless I'm way off my reckonin'. h.e.l.lo, you Sammy!" the old man cried, raising his voice. "How much longer are you goin' to fiddle 'round there?"

"I ain't much more'n got aboard; but if you're in sich a pucker to get back to the reef, I'll wind up business for the night, an' come alone to-morrow mornin', when I can do somewhere nigh what I want'er."

"That'll be the ticket, Sammy. Come out here an' stop all day, if you like; but jest now I'd rather be where I'm paid for stayin'."

The dory was backed in as Captain Eph spoke, and Mr. Peters succeeded in boarding her without serious mishap.

"There's a good bit of stuff aboard that's worth savin'," the first a.s.sistant said as he pulled at the oars. "I reckon I'll make a raft of it, so's to get it ash.o.r.e in one trip."

"Take what you like, Sammy; but don't forget that you've got a mighty small place in which to stow it."

Mr. Peters was so busily engaged in planning how he could care for the material which might be taken from the wreck at the expense of considerable hard work, that he was not inclined for further conversation, and no word was spoken during the return trip.

When, the dory having been hauled up on the ways and properly housed for the night, Sidney went into the tower, he found Uncle Zenas sewing on the clothing which Captain Eph had brought from the mainland, and he asked in surprise:

"Do you have to make new things over, sir?"

"Yes, Sonny, when they're sich slop-shop things as these. A st.i.tch here an' there now will save a world of trouble later, an' I'm lookin' to the future. Where are you to keep all this stuff?"

Sidney repeated the substance of the conversation he had so lately had with Captain Eph regarding sleeping quarters, and without awaiting orders from the keeper, Uncle Zenas set about making preparations at once.

"I reckon you're both right about the bed, an' I know jest how we'll fix the thing to suit you; there's plenty of time before I begin to get supper."

"But perhaps Captain Eph would rather hear about it first," Sidney said timidly, as the cook began to ascend the staircase, and the old man halted suddenly as he cried:

"Why, Sonny? What does he know 'bout sich things? He's helpless as a baby when it comes to the livin' part of keepin' a light-house, an' the more he'd say 'bout it the less we'd know what ought'er be done. I'll 'tend to this part of the business myself!"

Then the old man went up-stairs, and a moment later, when Captain Eph entered the kitchen, his first question was as to the cook's whereabouts.

Sidney explained how it had happened that he spoke to Uncle Zenas regarding the bed, and expressed sorrow because possibly he had interfered with some plan which the keeper might have had in mind.

"Not a bit of it, Sonny," Captain Eph cried with a hearty laugh. "You've saved me a world of trouble, perhaps, for if I'd said anything of the kind to Uncle Zenas he'd been certain to want it this way or that, an'

we'd had a heap of tongue-waggin' before gettin' the matter settled. Now he'll go ahead in his own way, as he thinks, an' the job is done."

Half an hour later Uncle Zenas came into the kitchen to cook supper, when he announced that everything had been done in what he considered a proper manner, and, curious to see how it was arranged, Sidney at once went to the keeper's chamber.

On the floor, in that part of the room where it would be sheltered from the draft of the stairway, was a rest-inviting bed with an ample supply of coverings, and the lad said to himself that now he could lie down to sleep knowing he was not depriving Captain Eph of the comforts which he absolutely needed.

"Got it fixed, eh?" Mr. Peters asked when Sidney came into the kitchen again, and the lad replied:

"It's as snug as possible. Uncle Zenas has done the thing up brown."

"That's 'cause I didn't have anybody standin' 'round sayin' it ought'er be done this way or that," the cook said emphatically, and Captain Eph winked slowly at Sidney and Mr. Peters.

"Well, Sammy, what time do you count on startin' for the wreck to-morrow?" the keeper asked when they were eating supper, after lighting the lamp in the lantern.

"Jest as soon as we get cleaned up. I reckon I'll make a good long day of it, for the chances are she'll go to pieces mighty soon, if your prediction about an easterly blow comes out true."

"I'll do your share of work in the morning," Sidney cried eagerly. "Then you can start as soon as it's light."

"There's no reason why he shouldn't," Captain Eph said in answer to the look Mr. Peters gave him. "Sonny could take care of the light all by himself, if so be there was any need for it; he's the quickest little shaver to learn I ever saw."

"Then I'll take up with his offer, an' be glad of the chance," the first a.s.sistant replied, and by this time Uncle Zenas insisted on knowing what it was Sammy proposed to do.

When Mr. Peters explained that it was his intention to save what he could from the wreck, with the idea that the material thus obtained might be useful in the future, Uncle Zenas made most vigorous protest to the surprise of all. He declared that it was not safe for the first a.s.sistant to go alone, and insisted that if the work must be done, Captain Eph should accompany him.

It was useless for the others to argue the matter with the cook; he would not allow that any one person was warranted in venturing alone on the wreck, and begged that the keeper would refuse permission for Mr.

Peters to leave the ledge.

"I sha'n't do anything of the kind," Captain Eph replied bluntly. "Sammy has got it inter his head that he'll get a lot of stuff from the wreck, an' if he's willin' to do all the work, I can't see that I've got any right to stop him."

Sidney believed Uncle Zenas was making a "mountain out of a mole-hill,"

but before four and twenty hours had pa.s.sed he wished most fervently that the cook had prevailed in the argument.