THE BEACON LIGHT
The lighthouse was a massive structure, over a hundred feet in height.
It had been built in obedience to a general demand, owing to the number
of vessels that had been wrecked in the vicinity. There were treacherous
currents and swiftly running tides due to the peculiar conformation of
the Maine coast at that point, and if a ship once grounded on the shoals
while a storm was raging its hours were numbered.
In the distance, with the sun playing on it and the sea gulls swooping
about its top, it seemed something slender and ethereal. It was only
when one was close at hand that its real strength and solidity could be
appreciated.
It was built on a solid rock foundation that sloped down into the sea
many feet distant from its base. The tower was circular in form so as to
offer as little surface as possible to the wind from whatever quarter it
might blow. The walls at the bottom, where the force of the waves spent
itself, were many feet thick, but they grew thinner as the tower rose in
the air. At the top was the enormous light of many thousand candle
power. It was the alternating kind, and every fifteen seconds it threw
out a ray that could be seen by mariners for many miles.
The lighthouse stood about a mile from the mainland, and all the
household supplies had to be brought over by Lester or his father from
the little village of Bartanet. Whatever was needed for the light itself
came at stated intervals on the government cutters that cruised along
that section of the coast.
The boys, under Lester's guidance, had long before this explored every
portion of the lighthouse and wondered at the marvels of the machinery
that set the light in motion and kept it going automatically through the
night. Brought up in inland towns, all this was new to them, and their
curiosity and interest were insatiable.
Now as they watched it growing larger as they drew nearer, they shared
the delight and pride of Lester in the noble structure of which his
father was the guardian.
"Isn't it glorious?" demanded Fred.
"Think of the lives that have been saved by it," said Teddy.
"And will be saved by it during the next hundred years," added Bill.
"I wonder if poor Mr. Montgomery saw it on that last cruise of his,"
pondered Fred.
"He must have, if the smugglers really came this way," answered Lester.
"That was only about nine years ago, you remember Ross said, and the
lighthouse has stood for twenty years."
"Has your father had charge of it all that time?" asked Bill.
"No, he was appointed about twelve years ago."
"Then he must have been here at the time the gold was stolen," said
Teddy eagerly. "I wonder if he heard anything about the matter."
"I never heard him speak about it, but I shouldn't be a bit surprised if
he had. There are so many old salts that run over to spin yarns with
him, that there's very little sea gossip going around that he doesn't
hear at one time or another."
"Let's ask him," suggested Bill.
"Surely we will. He may be able to tell us something that Ross himself
doesn't know."
"In that case, the next time we meet Ross it will be our turn to look
wise and mysterious," laughed Fred.
"Or we can bargain with him. We'll tell him what we know in return for
what he was going to tell us but didn't," added his brother.
"We'll have to come to something like that sooner or later," said Lester
decidedly. "It's all nonsense our going round blindly, when each might
be able to help the other. A sick man ought to tell everything to his
doctor, and a prisoner oughtn't to keep anything back from his lawyer.
When he does, he has no one to blame but himself if things don't go
right. I'm going to put it up to Ross, full and plain, the next time I
see him."
"I wonder when that will be," murmured Teddy.
"Before long I hope. If he doesn't come over to see us, we'll go up to
Oakland to see him."
"How far is Oakland from here?" asked Bill.
"Not more than thirty miles. With a good wind we can make it in a few
hours. But I think I see father standing on the platform of the tower.
Take a look, Bill, and tell me if it is. My eyes are pretty good, but
yours are better."
"That's who it is," pronounced Bill, after a minute's scrutiny. "He has
a pair of glasses in his hands. There, he's waving to us."
"Dear old dad!" exclaimed Lester. "I suppose he's worried himself half
sick, wondering what had become of us. But he knows now that we are
safe, and with this wind we'll not be more than twenty minutes or half
an hour in getting in."
They flew along over the waves, cunningly coaxing every inch of speed
out of the _Ariel_, and in less time than Lester had predicted they
rounded to at the little dock on the leeward side of the lighthouse
rock. A bronzed, elderly man, of medium height, came hurriedly down to
meet them.
"Thank God, you are safe!" he exclaimed, as he grasped Lester's hand,
then that of each of the boys in turn. "I haven't been able to think of
anything but you all night long. What happened to you?"
"It's a long story, Dad," said Lester, beaming affectionately on his
father, as, after fastening the _Ariel_, they all walked up to the
lighthouse. "We picked up a fellow that had been carried overboard from
his motor boat, and by that time the storm had grown so bad that we had
to run for it to the nearest place that offered us shelter."
"And where was that?"
"Up in Sentinel Cove. You know, where those two big rocks stand at the
entrance."
"Do you mean to say that you took the boat through that entrance while
that storm was raging?" asked his father, in a tone in which surprise
and pride were equally blended.
"There wasn't anything else to do," answered Lester.
"You ought to have seen the way he shot through there, Mr. Lee," put in
Fred. "It was a fine bit of seamanship. He's your own son when it comes
to sailing."
"I'm glad I didn't see him," was the answer. "It would have made my hair
grayer than it is, and that's gray enough. But all's well that ends
well, and I needn't tell you how thankful I am to have you turn up safe
and sound. It wasn't only my own boy, but I feel that I'm responsible
for you young chaps, too, while you're visiting here."
The boys had grown very fond of this kindly, hearty man who was their
friend's father. He had made them instantly welcome and given them the
run of the place. His means were limited but his heart was big, and from
the outset he had spared no pains to make them feel at home and to give
them a good time.
There were no women on the little island, as Lester's mother had died
ten years before. Because of this, the father and son, having no one but
each other, were bound together by the strongest affection.
Their housekeeping was of the simplest kind, but both of them were prime
cooks and they set such an abundant table that even the boys with their
ravenous appetites were completely satisfied. They even found a certain
pleasure in the lack of some of the "trimmings," as Teddy called them,
that had surrounded them in their more elaborate homes. It gave them a
sense of freedom, and the whole adventure became a sort of exalted
camping out.
Bill's life and Fred's and Teddy's recent experiences in the West had
hardened and toughened them and also made them more self-reliant. The
breezy outdoor life had become almost a necessity to them. So they
entered heartily into the domestic arrangements at Bartanet Shoals,
making their own beds and helping to prepare the meals. It is probable
that some of their women relatives would have sniffed contemptuously at
some of the results they reached, but this bothered them not at all.
They ate like wolves, slept like logs and were content.
Mr. Lee had followed the sea for many years. When scarcely out of his
teens, he had entered the navy. Later, he had shipped as a whaler, and
the boys listened breathlessly to the thrilling stories he had to tell
of his adventures in that perilous calling. After his wife's death, he
felt that the interests of his son required that he should stay at home;
so he had applied for the position of lighthouse keeper at Bartanet
Shoals, and had received it.
"You boys must be half starved," he said, as they entered the living
room of the lighthouse. "As I remember, you didn't have anything when
you started out except a few slices of bacon, and those wouldn't go far
with such a hungry crew as you are."
"Guess again, Dad," laughed Lester. "We didn't exactly starve last night
and this morning, did we, boys?"
"Um-yum," assented Fred, "I should say not! Clam soup and fried bacon
and broiled bluefish and hot coffee! Nothing more than that. And we
didn't do a thing to them, eh, fellows?"
"Not a thing!" chorused Bill and Teddy fervently.
Mr. Lee's eyes twinkled.
"I'm afraid I've made an awful mistake then," he said soberly. "I
thought you'd be nearly famished, and so I spread myself in getting up
an extra good dinner. But of course, if you've had so many good things,
you won't want anything more and I'll have to eat all alone."
He threw open the dining-room door and savory odors issued forth.
"Lead me to it!" shouted Bill. The next moment there was a regular
football rush, as the four laughing boys tried to beat each other to the
table.