Let us now return to Ruby Brand; and in order that the reader may
perfectly understand the proceedings of that bold youth, let us take a
glance at the Bell Rock Lighthouse in its completed condition.
We have already said that the lower part, from the foundation to the
height of thirty feet, was built of solid masonry, and that at the top
of this solid part stood the entrance-door of the building--facing
towards the south.
The position of the door was fixed after the solid part had been exposed
to a winter's storms. The effect on the building was such that the most
sheltered or lee-side was clearly indicated; the weather-side being
thickly covered with limpets, barnacles, and short green seaweed, while
the lee-side was comparatively free from such incrustations.
The walls at the entrance-door are nearly seven feet thick, and the
short passage that pierces them leads to the foot of a spiral staircase,
which conducts to the lowest apartment in the tower, where the walls
decrease in thickness to three feet. This room is the provision store.
Here are kept water-tanks and provisions of all kinds, including fresh
vegetables which, with fresh water, are supplied once a fortnight to the
rock all the year round. The provision store is the smallest apartment,
for, as the walls of the tower decrease in thickness as they rise, the
several apartments necessarily increase as they ascend.
The second floor is reached by a wooden staircase or ladder, leading up
through a "manhole" in the ceiling. Here is the lightroom store, which
contains large tanks of polished metal for the oil consumed by the
lights. A whole year's stock of oil, or about 1100 gallons, is stored
in these tanks. Here also is a small carpenter's bench and tool-box,
besides an endless variety of odds and ends,--such as paint-pots,
brushes, flags, waste for cleaning the reflectors, etcetera, etcetera.
Another stair, similar to the first, leads to the third floor, which is
the kitchen of the building. It stands about sixty-six feet above the
foundation. We shall have occasion to describe it and the rooms above
presently. Meanwhile, let it suffice to say, that the fourth floor
contains the men's sleeping-berths, of which there are six, although
three men is the usual complement on the rock. The fifth floor is the
library, and above that is the lantern; the whole building, from base to
summit, being 115 feet high.
At the time when Ruby entered the door of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, as
already described, there were three keepers in the building, one of whom
was on his watch in the lantern, while the other two were in the
kitchen.
These men were all old friends. The man in the lantern was George
Forsyth, who had been appointed one of the light-keepers in
consideration of his good services and steadiness. He was seated
reading at a small desk. Close above him was the blazing series of
lights, which revolved slowly and steadily by means of machinery, moved
by a heavy weight. A small bell was struck slowly but regularly by the
same machinery, in token that all was going on well. If that bell had
ceased to sound, Forsyth would at once have leaped up to ascertain what
was wrong with the lights. So long as it continued to ring he knew that
all was well, and that he might continue his studies peacefully--not
quietly, however, for, besides the rush of wind against the thick
plate-glass of the lantern, there was the never-ceasing roar of the
ventilator, in which the heated air from within and the cold air from
without met and kept up a terrific war. Keepers get used to that sound,
however, and do not mind it.
Each keeper's duty was to watch for three successive hours in the
lantern.
Not less familiar were the faces of the occupants of the kitchen. To
this apartment Ruby ascended without anyone hearing him approach, for
one of the windows was open, and the roar of the storm effectually
drowned his light footfall. On reaching the floor immediately below the
kitchen he heard the tones of a violin, and when his head emerged
through the manhole of the kitchen floor, he paused and listened with
deep interest, for the air was familiar.
Peeping round the corner of the oaken partition that separated the
manhole from the apartment, he beheld a sight which filled his heart
with gladness, for there, seated on a camp-stool, with his back leaning
against the dresser, his face lighted up by the blaze of a splendid
fire, which burned in a most comfortable-looking kitchen range, and his
hands drawing forth most pathetic music from a violin, sat his old
friend Joe Dumsby, while opposite to him on a similar camp-stool, with
his arm resting on a small table, and a familiar black pipe in his
mouth, sat that worthy son of Vulcan, Jamie Dove.
The little apartment glowed with ruddy light, and to Ruby, who had just
escaped from a scene of such drear and dismal aspect, it appeared, what
it really was, a place of the most luxurious comfort.
Dove was keeping time to the music with little puffs of smoke, and Joe
was in the middle of a prolonged shake, when Ruby passed through the
doorway and stood before them.
Dove's eyes opened to their widest, and his jaw dropt, so did his pipe,
and the music ceased abruptly, while the face of both men grew pale.
"I'm not a ghost, boys," said Ruby, with a laugh, which afforded immense
relief to his old comrades. "Come, have ye not a welcome for an old
messmate who swims off to visit you on such a night as this?"
Dove was the first to recover. He gasped, and, holding out both arms,
exclaimed, "Ruby Brand!"
"And no mistake!" cried Ruby, advancing and grasping his friend warmly
by the hands.
For at least half a minute the two men shook each other's hands lustily
and in silence. Then they burst into a loud laugh, while Joe, suddenly
recovering, went crashing into a Scotch reel with energy so great that
time and tune were both sacrificed. As if by mutual impulse, Ruby and
Dove began to dance! But this was merely a spurt of feeling, more than
half-involuntary. In the middle of a bar Joe flung down the fiddle,
and, springing up, seized Ruby round the neck and hugged him, an act
which made him aware of the fact that he was dripping wet.
"Did ye _swim_ hoff to the rock?" he enquired, stepping back, and gazing
at his friend with a look of surprise, mingled with awe.
"Indeed I did."
"But how? why? what mystery are ye rolled up in?" exclaimed the smith.
"Sit down, sit down, and quiet yourselves," said Ruby, drawing a stool
near to the fire, and seating himself. "I'll explain, if you'll only
hold your tongues, and not look so scared like."
"No, Ruby; no, lad, you must change yer clothes first," said the smith,
in a tone of authority; "why, the fire makes you steam like a washin'
biler. Come along with me, an' I'll rig you out."
"Ay, go hup with 'im, Ruby. Bless me, this is the most amazin'
hincident as ever 'appened to me. Never saw nothink like it."
As Dove and Ruby ascended to the room above, Joe went about the kitchen
talking to himself, poking the fire violently, overturning the
camp-stools, knocking about the crockery on the dresser, and otherwise
conducting himself like a lunatic.
Of course Ruby told Dove parts of his story by fits and starts as he was
changing his garments; of course he had to be taken up to the lightroom
and go through the same scene there with Forsyth that had occurred in
the kitchen; and, of course, it was not until all the men, himself
included, had quite exhausted themselves, that he was able to sit down
at the kitchen fire and give a full and connected account of himself,
and of his recent doings.
After he had concluded his narrative, which was interrupted by frequent
question and comment, and after he had refreshed himself with a cup of
tea, he rose and said--
"Now, boys, it's not fair to be spending all the night with you here,
while my old comrade Forsyth sits up yonder all alone. I'll go up and
see him for a little."
"We'll go hup with 'ee, lad," said Dumsby.
"No ye won't," replied Ruby; "I want him all to myself for a while; fair
play and no favour, you know, used to be our watchword on the rock in
old times. Besides, his watch will be out in a little, so ye can come
up and fetch him down."
"Well, go along with you," said the smith. "Hallo! that must have been
a big 'un."
This last remark had reference to a distinct tremor in the building,
caused by the falling of a great wave upon it.
"Does it often get raps like that?" enquired Ruby, with a look of
surprise.
"Not often," said Dove, "once or twice durin' a gale, mayhap, when a
bigger one than usual chances to fall on us at the right angle. But the
lighthouse shakes worst just the gales begin to take off and when the
swell rolls in heavy from the east'ard."
"Ay, that's the time," quoth Joe. "W'y, I've 'eard all the cups and
saucers on the dresser rattle with the blows o' them heavy seas, but the
gale is gittin' to be too strong to-night to shake us much."
"Too strong!" exclaimed Ruby.
"Ay. You see w'en it blows very hard, the breakers have not time to
come down on us with a 'eavy tellin' blow, they goes tumblin' and
swashin' round us and over us, hammerin' away wildly everyhow, or nohow,
or anyhow, just like a hexcited man fightin' in a hurry. The
after-swell, _that's_ wot does it. _That's_ wot comes on slow, and big,
and easy but powerful, like a great prize-fighter as knows what he can
do, and means to do it."
"A most uncomfortable sort of residence," said Ruby, as he turned to
quit the room.
"Not a bit, when ye git used to it," said the smith. "At first we was
rather skeered, but we don't mind now. Come, Joe, give us `Rule,
Britannia'--`pity she don't rule the waves straighter,' as somebody
writes somewhere."
So saying, Dove resumed his pipe, and Dumsby his fiddle, while Ruby
proceeded to the staircase that led to the rooms above.
Just as he was about to ascend, a furious gust of wind swept past,
accompanied by a wild roar of the sea; at the same moment a mass of
spray dashed against the small window at his side. He knew that this
window was at least sixty feet above the rock, and he was suddenly
filled with a strong desire to have a nearer view of the waves that had
force to mount so high. Instead, therefore, of ascending to the
lantern, he descended to the doorway, which was open, for, as the storm
blew from the eastward, the door was on the lee-side.
There were two doors--one of metal, with thick plate-glass panels at the
inner end of the passage; the other, at the outer end of it, was made of
thick solid wood bound with metal, and hung so as to open outwards.
When the two leaves of this heavy door were shut they were flush with
the tower, so that nothing was presented for the waves to act upon. But
this door was never closed except in cases of storm from the southward.
The scene which presented itself to our hero when he stood in the
entrance passage was such as neither pen nor pencil can adequately
depict. The tide was full, or nearly so, and had the night been calm
the water would have stood about twelve or fourteen feet on the sides of
the tower, leaving a space of about the same height between its surface
and the spot at the top of the copper ladder where Ruby stood; but such
was the wild commotion of the sea that this space was at one moment
reduced to a few feet, as the waves sprang up towards the doorway, or
nearly doubled, as they sank hissing down to the very rock.
Acres of white, leaping, seething foam covered the spot where the
terrible Bell Rock lay. Never for a moment did that boiling cauldron
get time to show one spot of dark-coloured water. Billow after billow
came careering on from the open sea in quick succession, breaking with
indescribable force and fury just a few yards to windward of the
foundations of the lighthouse, where the outer ledges of the rock,
although at the time deep down in the water, were sufficiently near the
surface to break their first full force, and save the tower from
destruction, though not from many a tremendous blow and overwhelming
deluge of water.
When the waves hit the rock they were so near that the lighthouse
appeared to receive the shock. Rushing round it on either side, the
cleft billows met again to leeward, just opposite the door, where they
burst upwards in a magnificent cloud of spray to a height of full thirty
feet. At one time, while Ruby held on by the man-ropes at the door and
looked over the edge, he could see a dark abyss with the foam shimmering
pale far below; another instant, and the solid building perceptibly
trembled, as a green sea hit it fair on the weather-side. A continuous
roar and hiss followed as the billow swept round, filled up the dark
abyss, and sent the white water gleaming up almost into the doorway. At
the same moment the sprays flew by on either side of the column, so high
that a few drops were thrown on the lantern. To Ruby's eye these sprays
appeared to be clouds driving across the sky, so high were they above
his head. A feeling of awe crept over him as his mind gradually began
to realise the world of water which, as it were, overwhelmed him--water
and foam roaring and flying everywhere--the heavy seas thundering on the
column at his back--the sprays from behind arching almost over the
lighthouse, and meeting those that burst up in front, while an eddy of
wind sent a cloud swirling in at the doorway, and drenched him to the
skin! It was an exhibition of the might of God in the storm such as he
had never seen before, and a brief sudden exclamation of thanksgiving
burst from the youth's lips, as he thought of how hopeless his case
would have been had the French vessel passed the lighthouse an hour
later than it did.
The contrast between the scene outside and that inside the Bell Rock
Lighthouse at that time was indeed striking. Outside there was madly
raging conflict; inside there were peace, comfort, security: Ruby, with
his arms folded, standing calmly in the doorway; Jamie Dove and Joe
Dumsby smoking and fiddling in the snug kitchen; George Forsyth reading
(the _Pilgrim's Progress_ mayhap, or _Robinson Crusoe_, for both works
were in the Bell Rock library) by the bright blaze of the crimson and
white lamps, high up in the crystal lantern.
If a magician had divided the tower in two from top to bottom while some
ship was staggering past before the gale, he would have presented to the
amazed mariners the most astonishing picture of "war without and peace
within" that the world ever saw!