THE LIGHT KEEPER'S STORY
"Hurray! She's going!"
It was Jack who cried this.
"'She starts, she moves, she seems to feel----'"
"As though we'd catch a wiggling eel!"
Thus Ed began the quotation, and thus Walter ended it. The boys had
been working in the motor boat, and had only now, after several hours,
succeeded in getting it to respond to their labors. The motor started
with a sound that "meant business," as Jack expressed it.
"Let's go for a run," suggested Norton.
"Better wait for the girls--it's their boat," returned Walter.
"And we'd better pump some of the water out of her," added Jack. "She
leaks like a sieve."
"Pump her out, and by the time the girls are here she'll be ready," spoke
Walter.
"It was that carbureter all the while," declared Ed. "I knew it was!"
"I was sure it was in the secondary coil," came from Jack.
"And you couldn't make me believe but what it was one of the spark plugs,"
was Norton's contribution. "But it was the carbureter, all right."
"All wrong, you mean," half grumbled Walter, whose hands were covered with
grease and gasoline. "Some one had opened the needle valve too far."
"Well, let's get busy with the pump," Jack said. "It's too nice to be
hanging around the float."
The _Pet_ was soon in as good condition as hasty work could make her, and
on the arrival of the girls the whole party went out for a spin, though
they were a bit crowded. Cora was at the wheel, a position her right to
which none disputed.
"I don't know these waters around here," she admitted, "but Rosalie said
there was a good depth nearly all over the Cove, even at low tide."
"Rosalie being the mermaid?" asked Norton. "I should like to meet her."
"I have asked her over to the bungalow," went on Cora. "But I warn you
that she is a very _sensible_ girl."
"Meaning that I am not?" challenged Norton.
"Not a girl--certainly," observed Jack.
"Not sensible!" exclaimed Norton.
"Don't give them an opening, boy," cautioned Ed. "You don't know these
girls as I do."
"Don't flatter yourself," was the contribution from Bess.
"Why don't you talk?" asked Jack of Belle.
"She's too interested in how deep the water is, and wondering if she will
float as well as dripping Dick," mocked Eline.
"I am not!" promptly answered Belle. "And just to show you that I'm not
afraid I'm going to try to swim as soon as we go in bathing."
"Which will be to-morrow," said Cora.
They motored about the bay, winding in and out among anchored and moving
craft. Cora was as adept at the wheel of the _Pet_ as she was at that of
the _Whirlwind_, and many admiring comments were made by other steersmen
in the Cove, though Cora knew it not.
"She stood her land journey well," remarked Bess, as she noted how well
the engine was running.
"But you should have seen the trouble we had," complained Walter. "We
thought she'd never go!"
The day was lovely, and it was a temptation to stay out, but Cora was
wise enough not to remain too long on the water. Already the effect of the
hot sun was evident on the hands and faces of all, and the girls were
secretly wishing for some talcum powder.
They went back to the float, arrangements having been made to dock the
_Petrel_ there. Then came a hasty meal and another spin.
They were getting matters down to a system in the bungalows now--at least
the girls were. The boys lived haphazard, as they always did, and perhaps
always would. Mrs. Chester--Aunt Susan--in the absence of Mrs. Fordam, who
had returned home--assumed charge of Cora and her friends to the extent
of seeing that meals were ready on time.
It was their third day at the coast, the time having been well
occupied--every hour of it almost--and the girls were out alone in the
_Pet_--the boys having gone fishing--when Cora observed a figure in a
red bathing suit near the lighthouse float waving to them.
"Rosalie--the mermaid!" exclaimed Bess. "What can she want?"
"Perhaps her little brother is in the water again," said Belle.
"No, she doesn't seem excited enough for that," spoke Eline.
"We'll go see," was Cora's decision.
The _Pet_ circled up to the float and came to a stop at its side, not a
jar marring the landing.
"Well done!" said Rosalie to Cora. "There are not many girls who can run
a motor boat like that."
"I have had some practice," was the modest reply.
"Father will be glad to see you," went on the mermaid, with a smile. "He
has just been polishing the light, and I know he'll be glad to show you
through."
She glanced meaningly at Cora, who returned the look.
"Welcome, ladies!" greeted Mr. Haley. "I'm real glad to see you. Visitors
are always welcome. Are you good climbers?"
"Why?" asked Eline.
"Because we have no elevator, and it's quite a step to the top of the
tower."
"Oh, we can do it," Cora declared.
They were shown through the light, and the keeper explained how, by means
of clock-work, propelled by heavy weights, the great lens was revolved,
making the flashing light. It turned every five seconds, sending out a
signal that all the mariners knew, each lighthouse being in a different
class, and the signals they gave, either fixed or stationary, being
calculated to distinguish different parts of the coast where danger lies.
On their return to the neat parlor, on the appearance of which the girls
complimented Rosalie, who kept house for her father--his wife being
dead--Cora saw a photograph lying on the centre table. At the sight of
it she exclaimed:
"That is she!"
"Who? What do you mean?" cried Mr. Haley. "That is my sister!"
"And it is the woman who was in our barn!" Cora said. "I have thought all
along it was. Now I am sure of it. Mr. Haley, I am sure I do not want to
pry into your family affairs, but your daughter said something about her
aunt being missing, and how worried you were. I am sure we have met her
since--since her trouble. Perhaps we can help you."
"Oh, if you only could!" exclaimed the light keeper. "My poor sister!
Where can she be?"
"Suppose you tell me a little about her, and then I--and my friends--can
decide whether the woman we met is the one pictured there," and Cora
passed the photograph to Bess.
"There isn't much to tell," said the keeper of the light, slowly. "My
sister is a widow. After her husband died she went to Westport to work in
an office. She had been a clerk before her marriage. Everything seemed
to go well for a time and she occasionally wrote to me how much she liked
it. A friend of hers was in the same building.
"Then my sister's letters ceased suddenly. I got worried and wrote to her
friend. I got an answer, saying there had been a robbery in the office
where my sister worked, and that my sister had disappeared. A young girl
left at the same time, and there was some doubt about the robbery, though
two men were mentioned as being concerned in it. But my poor sister must
have felt that they would suspect her--and she never would take a pin
belonging to anyone else. But she went away, and I've tried all means to
locate her, but I can't. It has me worried to death, nearly."
"What was your sister's name?" asked Cora.
"Margaret Raymond."
"That is the same woman!" spoke Cora, firmly. "Oh, to think we didn't ask
her more about herself!"
By degrees she and the other girls told the story of the woman in the
burning barn. They did not so much as hint of their first suspicions about
the fire.
"And what was the name of the girl who worked in the office with her?"
asked Belle.
"Nancy Ford," answered Mr. Haley.
"There can be no doubt of it," declared Cora. "That settles it. What a
coincidence! That we should find her brother here!"
"Oh, can you tell me where my sister is?" asked the light keeper.
"I am very sorry, but she went away in a hurry from my house," said Cora,
"and we have not seen her since. We feel sure she was the woman the sheep
herder met that same night," and she told about that incident.
"Bless that kind man--he helped her some, anyhow, and bless you girls,"
said Mr. Haley, fervently. His eyes were moist, and those of the girls
were not altogether dry.
"How can we trace her?" asked Bess.
"The only way I see," spoke Cora, "is to write to the town toward which
she went after the sheep man saw her. The authorities there might give
some information."
"I'll do it!" cried the light keeper, as he made a note of the place. "I
can't thank you enough."
"Oh, we have done scarcely anything," answered Cora. "We wish it were much
more."
Further details and forgotten incidents were mentioned as bearing on the
case, and then the girls departed in the boat. It was a little rough going
back, and the spray flew over them.
"Isn't it strange?" observed Belle.
"Very queer how it all turned out," agreed Eline.
"Poor woman," said Cora. "I feel so sorry for her!"
The boys remained out fishing nearly all day, and when they returned, not
having had exceptional luck, Cora took Jack to one side and asked:
"What was the name of the girl you and Ed met on the road the time of our
break-down?"
"She didn't say."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course, Sis. If I knew I'd have sent her a souvenir postal. What's
the answer?"
"Oh, nothing, I thought perhaps she had mentioned it."
"Nary a word. Did you have a nice ride?"
"Yes, we went to the lighthouse. And, Jack, what do you think? That
woman--the one in our garage--is Mr. Haley's sister!"
Jack was properly astonished, and he and the other boys listened with
interest to the story of the identification.
"Say," drawled Norton, "if we find Nancy Ford and Mrs. Raymond we'll be
doing a good thing."
"If," observed Ed, significantly.