III.
_DID THE SCHOONER COME BACK?_
Mr. Toby Tolman sat in the snug little kitchen of the lighthouse tower.He was alone, but the clock ticked on the wall, and the kettle purredcontentedly on the stove. Music and company in those sounds.
The light-keeper had just visited the lantern, had seen that the lampwas burning satisfactorily, had looked out on the wide sea to detect, ifpossible, any sign of fog, had "felt of the wind," as he termed it, butdid not discover any hint of rough weather. Having pronounced all thingssatisfactory, he had come down to the kitchen to read awhile in hisBible. The gray-haired keeper loved his Bible. It was a companion tohim when lonely, a pillow of rest when his soul was weary with cares, alamp of guidance when he was uncertain about the way for his feet, ahigh, strong rock of refuge when sorrows hunted his soul.
"I just love my Bible," he said.
He had reason to say it. What book can match it?
As he sat contentedly reading its beautiful promises, he caught thesound of singing.
"Some fishermen going home," he said, and read on. After a while heheard the sound of a vigorous pounding on the lighthouse door.
"Why, why!" he exclaimed in amazement, "what is that?"
He rose and hastily descended the stair-way leading to the entrance ofthe lighthouse. To gain admission to the lighthouse, one first passedthrough the fog-signal tower. The lighthouse proper was built of stone;the other tower was of iron. They rose side by side. A coveredpassage-way five feet long connected the two towers, and entrance fromthe outside was first through the fog-signal tower. The foundation ofeach tower was a stubborn ledge that the sea would cover at high-water,and it was now necessary to have all doors beyond the reach of theroughly-grasping breakers. Otherwise they would have unpleasantlypressed for admittance, and might have gained it. The entrance to thefog-signal tower was about twenty feet above the summit of the ledge,and from the door dropped a ladder closely fastened to the tower's redwall. Around the door was a railed platform of iron, and through a holein the platform a person stepped down upon the rounds of the ladder.Toby Tolman seized a lantern, and crossing the passage-way connectingthe two towers, entered the fog-signal tower, and so gained theentrance. Just above the threshold of the door he saw the head andshoulders of a boy standing on the ladder.
"Why! who's this, at this time of night?" said Toby.
"Good-evening, sir. Excuse me, but I wanted to ask you something."
It was Dave Fletcher.
"Any trouble?"
"Well, yes."
"Come in, come in! Don't be bashful. Lighthouses are for folks introuble."
"Thank you."
When Dave had climbed into the tower Dick Fray's curly head appeared.
"Oh, any more of you?" asked the keeper. "Bring him along."
"Good-evening," said Dick.
Then Jimmy Davis thrust up his head.
"Oh, another?" asked Toby. "How many?"
"Not through yet, Mr. Tolman," said Dave, laughing.
Johnny Richards stuck up his grinning face above the threshold.
"Any more?" said the light-keeper.
And this inquiry Dab Richards answered in person, relieving the ladderof its last load.
"Why, why! wasn't expecting this! All castaways?"
"Pretty near it, Mr. Tolman," said Dick.
"Come up into the kitchen, and then let us have your story, boys."
They followed the light-keeper into the kitchen, so warm, so cheerfullylighted.
In the boat Dick Pray had been very bold, and said he would go ahead and"beard the lion in his den;" but when at the foot of the lighthouse, heconcluded he would silently allow Dave to precede him. The warmth of thekitchen thawed out Dick's tongue, and now that he was inside he kept apart of his word, and made an explanation to the light-keeper. He statedthat they had had permission to "picnic" on the schooner, had--had--"gotadrift"--somehow--and were caught on the bar, and the question was whatto do.
"Perhaps you can advise us still further," explained Dave. "Onesuggestion is that when the tide turns we pull up anchor and drift backwith the tide."
"Anchor?" asked Mr. Toby Tolman. "I thought you went on because youcouldn't help it. Didn't know you dropped anchor there."
Dick blushed and cleared his throat.
"The schooner was anchored, but," said Dick, choking a little,"we--we--got--got--into water too deep for our anchor, and kept ondrifting till the anchor caught in the bar."
"Oh!" said the light-keeper, who now saw a little deeper into themystery, though all was not clear to him yet. "What will you do now?It is a good rule generally, when you don't know which way to move, notto move. Now, if you pull up anchor and let the next tide take youback, there is no telling where it will take you. Some bad rocks in ourharbour as well as a lot of sand. 'Sharks' Fins' you know about. Anugly place. Now let me think a moment."
The light-keeper in deep thought walked up and down the floor, while thefive boys clustered about the stove like bees flocking to a flaminghollyhock.
"See here: I advise this. Don't trouble that anchor to-night. The seais quiet. No harm will be done the schooner, and her anchor hasprobably got a good grip on some rocks down below, and the tide won'tstart her. A tug will bring down a new schooner from Shipton to-morrow,and I will signal to the cap'n, and you can get him to tow you back.What say?" asked the keeper. "'Twill cost something."
"That plan looks sensible," said Dave. "I will give my share of theexpense."
Dick looked down in silence. He wanted to get back without any exposureof his fault. The tug meant exposure, for the world outside would knowit. The tide as motive power, drifting the schooner back, would tell notales if the schooner went to the right place. There would, however, bedanger of collision with rocks, and then the bill of expense would begreater and the exposure more mortifying. He scratched his head andhesitated, but finally assented to the tug-boat plan, and so did theother boys.
"Very well, then," said the keeper, "make yourselves at home, and I'lldo all I can to make you comfortable."
What, stay there? Did he mean it? He meant a night of comfort in thelighthouse.
What a night that was!
"I wouldn't have missed it for twenty pounds," Johnny Richards said tothose at home.
And the breakfast! It was without parallel. The schooner was held byits anchor inside the bar, and the boys in the morning visited theirprovision-baskets, and brought off such a heap of delicacies that thelight-keeper declared it to be the "most satisfyin' meal" he had everhad inside those stone walls.
About nine o'clock he said, "Now, boys, I expect the tug-boat will bedown with that schooner. When the cap'n of the tug-boat has carried herthrough the channel, I will signal to him--he and I have anunderstanding about it--and he will come round and tow you up, I don'tdoubt. You might be a-watching for her smoke."
Soon Dab Richards, looking up the harbour, cried out, "Smoke! she'scoming!"
Yes, there was the tug-boat, throwing up a column of black smoke fromher chimney, and behind her were the freshly-painted hull, and new,clean rigging of the lately launched schooner. The boys, save Dave,went to the _Relentless_, as the light-keeper said he would fixeverything with the tug-boat, "make a bargain, and so on," and Davecould hear the terms and accept them for the party if he wished. Thelight-keeper had also promised in his own boat to put Dave aboard thetug.
But what other tug-boat was it the boys on the _Relentless_ saw steamingdown the harbour? They stood in the bow and watched her approach.
"She looks as if she were going to run into us," declared Dick.
"She certainly is pointing this way," thought Johnny.
"Our friends may be alarmed for us," was Dab's suggestion.
This could not be, the other boys thought, and they dismissed it as ateasing remark by Dab. And yet the tug-boat was coming toward them likean arrow feathered with black smoke
and shot out by a strong arm.
"It is certainly coming toward us," cried Dick in alarm. Who was it hisblack eyes detected among the people leaning over the rail of thenearing tug-boat?
He looked again.
He took a third look.
"Boys," he shouted, "put!"
How rapidly he rushed for a hatchway, descending an old ladder still inplace and leading into the schooner's hold! Fear is catching. Had Dickseen a policeman sent out in a special tug to hunt up the boys andsecure the vessel? Johnny Richards flew after Dick. Jimmy Davisfollowed Johnny. Dab was quickly at the heels of Jimmy. Down into thedark, smelling hold, stumbling over the keelson, splashing into thebilge water, and frightening the rats, hurried the still more frightenedboys.
"Who was it, Dick?" asked Dab.
"Keep still boys; don't say anything."
"Can't you tell his name?" whispered Johnny.
There it was, down in the dark, that Dick whispered the fearful name.When the tug-boat, the _Leopard_, carrying Dave neared the schooner, thecaptain said, "You have another tug there. It is the _Panther_."
The _Leopard_ hated the _Panther_, and would gladly have clawed it outof shape and sunk it.
"I don't understand why the _Panther_ is there," said Dave; "I reallydon't know what it means."
"You see," said the master of the _Leopard_ fiercely, "if that otherboat is a-goin' to do the job, let her do it (he will probably cheatyou). I can't fool away my time. The _Sally Jane_ is waitin' up streamto be towed down, and I would like to get the job."
"We will soon find out what it means, sir. Just put me alongside theschooner."
"I will put my boat there, and you can jump out."
Who was it that Dave saw on the schooner's deck? Dave trembled at theprospect. He could imagine what was coming, and it came.
"Here, young man, what have you been up to? A precious set of youngrascals to be running off with my property. I thought you said youwould be particular. The state prison is none too good for you," saidthis unexpected and gruff personage.
"Squire Sylvester," replied Dave with dignity, "just wait before youcondemn after that fashion; wait till you get the facts. I did try tobe particular. I don't think it was intended when it was done; boysdon't think, you know--"
"When what was done?"
"Why, the anchor lifted--weighed--"
"Anchor lifted!" growled Squire Sylvester. "What for?"
"Just to see it move, and have a little ride, I think."
"Have a little sail! Didn't you know, sir, it was exposing property tohave a little sail?"
Here the squire silently levelled a stout red forefinger at thisopprobrious wretch, this villain, this thief, this robber on the highseas, this--with what else did that finger mean to label David Fletcher?
"But the anchor was dropped again, and it was thought, sir, thatit--that it would stop--"
"And the vessel did not stop! Might have guessed that, I should say.You got into deep water."
"We were going to hire the _Leopard_ to tow it back, and any damageswould have been paid. I am very sorry--"
"No apologies, young man. What's done is done. I have got a tug-boat totake the vessel back."
"And you don't want me?" here shouted the captain of the _Leopard_.
"Of course not," muttered the captain of the _Panther_, showing somewhite teeth in derision.
"I don't know anything about you," said Squire Sylvester to the captainof the _Leopard_; "this other party may settle with you."
"I'll pay any bill," said Dave to the _Leopard_, whose steam wasescaping in a low growl.
"Can't waste any more time," snarled the _Leopard_. He rang thesignal-bell to the engineer, and off went his tug.
"Well, where are your companions?" said Squire Sylvester to Dave.--"OGiles," he added to the _Panther_, "you may start up your boat if youhave made fast to the schooner."
"Weigh the anchor fust, sir."
"Oh yes, Giles."
The anchor weighed, the _Panther_ then sneezed, splashed, frothed, andthe _Relentless_ followed it. Squire Sylvester declared that he mustfind the other runaways; that they must be on board the schooner, and hewould hunt for them. He discovered them down in the hold, and out ofthe shadows crawled four sheepish, mortified hide-aways.
And so back to its moorings went the old schooner.
Back to his office went Squire Sylvester, mad with others, and mad withhimself because mad with others.
Back to their homes went a shabby picnic party, and after them came abill for the expense of the _Relentless's_ return trip. It costssomething in this life to find out that the thing easily started may notbe the thing easily stopped.