CHAPTER EIGHT.
THE SCENE CHANGES--RUBY IS VULCANISED.
As Captain Ogilvy had predicted, Ruby was at once engaged as anassistant blacksmith on the Bell Rock. In fact, they were only too gladto get such a powerful, active young fellow into their service; and hewas shipped off with all speed in the sloop _Smeaton_, with a few otherswho were going to replace some men who had become ill and were obligedto leave.
A light westerly breeze was blowing when they cast off the moorings ofthe sloop.
"Goodbye, Ruby," said the captain, as he was about to step on the pier."Remember your promise, lad, to keep quiet, and don't try to get ashore,or to hold communication with anyone till you hear from me."
"All right, uncle, I won't forget, and I'll make my mind easy, for Iknow that my case is left in good hands."
Three hours elapsed ere the _Smeaton_ drew near to the Bell Rock.During this time, Ruby kept aloof from his fellow-workmen, feelingdisposed to indulge the sad thoughts which filled his mind. He sat downon the bulwarks, close to the main shrouds, and gazed back at the townas it became gradually less and less visible in the faint light ofmorning. Then he began to ponder his unfortunate circumstances, andtried to imagine how his uncle would set about clearing up his characterand establishing his innocence; but, do what he would, Ruby could notkeep his mind fixed for any length of time on any subject or line ofthought, because of a vision of sweetness which it is useless to attemptto describe, and which was always accompanied by, and surrounded with, agolden halo.
At last the youth gave up the attempt to fix his thoughts, and allowedthem to wander as they chose, seeing that they were resolved to do sowhether he would or no. The moment these thoughts had the reins flungon their necks, and were allowed to go where they pleased, they refused,owing to some unaccountable species of perversity, to wander at all, butat once settled themselves comfortably down beside the vision withgolden hair, and remained there.
This agreeable state of things was rudely broken in upon by the hoarsevoice of the mate shouting--
"Stand by to let go the anchor."
Then Ruby sprang on the deck and shook himself like a great mastiff, andresolved to devote himself, heart and soul, from that moment, to thework in which he was about to engage.
The scene that presented itself to our hero when he woke up from hisdreams would have interested and excited a much less enthusiastictemperament than his.
The breeze had died away altogether, just as if, having wafted the_Smeaton_ to her anchorage, there were no further occasion for itsservices. The sea was therefore quite calm, and as there had only beenlight westerly winds for some time past, there was little or none of theswell that usually undulates the sea. One result of this was, that,being high water when the _Smeaton_ arrived, there was no sign whateverof the presence of the famous Bell Rock. It lay sleeping nearly twofathoms below the sea, like a grim giant in repose, and not a ripple wasthere to tell of the presence of the mariner's enemy.
The sun was rising, and its slanting beams fell on the hulls of thevessels engaged in the service, which lay at anchor at a short distancefrom each other. These vessels, as we have said, were four in number,including the _Smeaton_. The others were the _Sir Joseph Banks_, asmall schooner-rigged vessel; the _Patriot_, a little sloop; and the_Pharos_ lightship, a large clumsy-looking Dutch-built ship, fitted withthree masts, at the top of which were the lanterns. It was intendedthat this vessel should do duty as a lightship until the lighthouseshould be completed.
Besides these there were two large boats, used for landing stones andbuilding materials on the rock.
These vessels lay floating almost motionless on the calm sea, and atfirst there was scarcely any noise aboard of them to indicate that theywere tenanted by human beings, but when the sound of the _Smeaton's_cable was heard there was a bustle aboard of each, and soon faces wereseen looking inquisitively over the sides of the ships.
The _Smeaton's_ boat was lowered after the anchor was let go, and thenew hands were transferred to the _Pharos_, which was destined to betheir home for some time to come.
Just as they reached her the bell rang for breakfast, and when Rubystepped upon the deck he found himself involved in all the bustle thatensues when men break off from work and make preparation for the morningmeal.
There were upwards of thirty artificers on board the lightship at thistime. Some of these, as they hurried to and fro, gave the new arrivalsa hearty greeting, and asked, "What news from the shore?" Others wereapparently too much taken up with their own affairs to take notice ofthem.
While Ruby was observing the busy scene with absorbing interest, andutterly forgetful of the fact that he was in any way connected with it,an elderly gentleman, whose kind countenance and hearty manner gaveindication of a genial spirit within, came up and accosted him:
"You are our assistant blacksmith, I believe?"
"Yes, sir, I am," replied Ruby, doffing his cap, as if he feltinstinctively that he was in the presence of someone of note.
"You have had considerable practice, I suppose, in your trade?"
"A good deal, sir, but not much latterly, for I have been at sea forsome time."
"At sea? Well, that won't be against you here," returned the gentleman,with a meaning smile. "It would be well if some of my men were a littlemore accustomed to the sea, for they suffer much from sea-sickness. Youcan go below, my man, and get breakfast. You'll find your futuremessmate busy at his, I doubt not. Here, steward," (turning to one ofthe men who chanced to pass at the moment,) "take Ruby Brand--that isyour name, I think?"
"It is, sir."
"Take Brand below, and introduce him to James Dove as his assistant."
The steward escorted Ruby down the ladder that conducted to those darkand littered depths of the ship's hull that were assigned to theartificers as their place of abode. But amidst a good deal ofunavoidable confusion, Ruby's practised eye discerned order andarrangement everywhere.
"This is your messmate, Jamie Dove," said the steward, pointing to amassive dark man, whose outward appearance was in keeping with hisposition as the Vulcan of such an undertaking as he was then engaged in."You'll find him not a bad feller if you only don't cross him." Headded, with a wink, "His only fault is that he's given to spoilin' goodvictuals, being raither floored by sea-sickness if it comes on to blowever so little."
"Hold your clapper, lad," said the smith, who was at the moment busilyengaged with a mess of salt pork, and potatoes to match. "Who's yourfriend?"
"No friend of mine, though I hope he'll be one soon," answered thesteward. "Mr Stevenson told me to introduce him to you as yourassistant."
The smith looked up quickly, and scanned our hero with some interest;then, extending his great hard hand across the table, he said, "Welcome,messmate; sit down, I've only just begun."
Ruby grasped the hand with his own, which, if not so large, was quite aspowerful, and shook the smith's right arm in a way that called forthfrom that rough-looking individual a smile of approbation.
"You've not had breakfast, lad?"
"No, not yet," said Ruby, sitting down opposite his comrade.
"An' the smell here don't upset your stummick, I hope?"
The smith said this rather anxiously.
"Not in the least," said Ruby with a laugh, and beginning to eat in away that proved the truth of his words; "for the matter o' that, there'slittle smell and no motion just now."
"Well, there isn't much," replied the smith, "but, woe's me! you'll getenough of it before long. All the new landsmen like you suffer horriblyfrom sea-sickness when they first come off."
"But I'm not a landsman," said Ruby.
"Not a landsman!" echoed the other. "You're a blacksmith, aren't you?"
"Ay, but not a landsman. I learned the trade as a boy and lad; but I'vebeen at sea for some time past."
"Then you won't get sick when it blows?"
"Certainly not; will _you_?"
The smith groaned and shook
his head, by which answer he evidently meantto assure his friend that he would, most emphatically.
"But come, it's of no use groanin' over what can't be helped. I get assick as a dog every time the wind rises, and the worst of it is I don'tnever seem to improve. Howsever, I'm all right when I get on the rock,and that's the main thing."
Ruby and his friend now entered upon a long and earnest conversation asto their peculiar duties at the Bell Rock, with which we will nottrouble the reader.
After breakfast they went on deck, and here Ruby had sufficient tooccupy his attention and to amuse him for some hours.
As the tide that day did not fall low enough to admit of landing on therock till noon, the men were allowed to spend the time as they pleased.Some therefore took to fishing, others to reading, while a few employedthemselves in drying their clothes, which had got wet the previous day,and one or two entertained themselves and their comrades with the musicof the violin and flute. All were busy with one thing or another, untilthe rock began to show its black crest above the smooth sea. Then abell was rung to summon the artificers to land.
This being the signal for Ruby to commence work, he joined his friendDove, and assisted him to lower the bellows of the forge into the boat.The men were soon in their places, with their various tools, and theboats pushed off--Mr Stevenson, the engineer of the building, steeringone boat, and the master of the _Pharos_, who was also appointed to thepost of landing-master, steering the other.
They landed with ease on this occasion on the western side of the rock,and then each man addressed himself to his special duty with energy.The time during which they could work being short, they had to make themost of it.
"Now, lad," said the smith, "bring along the bellows and follow me.Mind yer footin', for it's slippery walkin' on them tangle-coveredrocks. I've seen some ugly falls here already."
"Have any bones been broken yet?" enquired Ruby, as he shouldered thelarge pair of bellows, and followed the smith cautiously over the rocks.
"Not yet; but there's been an awful lot o' pipes smashed. If it goes onas it has been, we'll have to take to metal ones. Here we are, Ruby,this is the forge, and I'll be bound you never worked at such a queerone before. Hallo! Bremner!" he shouted to one of the men.
"That's me," answered Bremner.
"Bring your irons as soon as you like! I'm about ready for you."
"Ay, ay, here they are," said the man, advancing with an armful ofpicks, chisels, and other tools, which required sharpening.
He slipped and fell as he spoke, sending all the tools into the bottomof a pool of water; but, being used to such mishaps, he arose, joined inthe laugh raised against him, and soon fished up the tools.
"What's wrong!" asked Ruby, pausing in the work of fixing the bellows,on observing that the smith's face grew pale, and his general expressionbecame one of horror. "Not sea-sick, I hope?"
"Sea-sick," gasped the smith, slapping all his pockets hurriedly, "it'sworse than that; I've forgot the matches!"
Ruby looked perplexed, but had no consolation to offer.
"That's like you," cried Bremner, who, being one of the principalmasons, had to attend chiefly to the digging out of the foundation-pitof the building, and knew that his tools could not be sharpened unlessthe forge fire could be lighted.
"Suppose you hammer a nail red-hot," suggested one of the men, who wasdisposed to make game of the smith.
"I'll hammer your nose red-hot," replied Dove, with a most undovelikescowl, "I could swear that I put them matches in my pocket before Istarted."
"No, you didn't," said George Forsyth, one of the carpenters--a tallloose-jointed man, who was chiefly noted for his dislike to getting intoand out of boats, and climbing up the sides of ships, because of hislengthy and unwieldy figure--"No, you didn't, you turtle-dove, youforgot to take them; but I remembered to do it for you; so there, get upyour fire, and confess yourself indebted to me for life."
"I'm indebted to 'ee for fire," said the smith, grasping the matcheseagerly. "Thank'ee, lad, you're a true Briton."
"A tall 'un, rather," suggested Bremner.
"Wot never, never, never will be a slave," sang another of the men.
"Come, laddies, git up the fire. Time an' tide waits for naebody," saidJohn Watt, one of the quarriers. "We'll want thae tools before lang."
The men were proceeding with their work actively while those remarkswere passing, and ere long the smoke of the forge fire arose in thestill air, and the clang of the anvil was added to the other noises withwhich the busy spot resounded.
The foundation of the Bell Rock Lighthouse had been carefully selectedby Mr Stevenson; the exact spot being chosen not only with a view toelevation, but to the serrated ridges of rock, that might afford someprotection to the building, by breaking the force of the easterly seasbefore they should reach it; but as the space available for the purposeof building was scarcely fifty yards in diameter, there was not muchchoice in the matter.
The foundation-pit was forty-two feet in diameter, and sunk five feetinto the solid rock. At the time when Ruby landed, it was being hewnout by a large party of the men. Others were boring holes in the rocknear to it, for the purpose of fixing the great beams of a beacon, whileothers were cutting away the seaweed from the rock, and makingpreparations for the laying down of temporary rails to facilitate theconveying of the heavy stones from the boats to their ultimatedestination. All were busy as bees. Each man appeared to work as iffor a wager, or to find out how much he could do within a given space oftime.
To the men on the rock itself the aspect of the spot was sufficientlystriking and peculiar, but to those who viewed it from a boat at a shortdistance off it was singularly interesting, for the whole scene ofoperations appeared like a small black spot, scarcely above the level ofthe waves, on which a crowd of living creatures were moving about withgreat and incessant activity, while all around and beyond lay the mightysea, sleeping in the grand tranquillity of a calm summer day, withnothing to bound it but the blue sky, save to the northward, where thedistant cliffs of Forfar rested like a faint cloud on the horizon.
The sounds, too, which on the rock itself were harsh and loud andvaried, came over the water to the distant observer in a united tone,which sounded almost as sweet as soft music.
The smith's forge stood on a ledge of rock close to the foundation-pit,a little to the north of it. Here Vulcan Dove had fixed a strong ironframework, which formed the hearth. The four legs which supported itwere let into holes bored from six to twelve inches into the rock,according to the inequalities of the site. These were wedged first withwood and then with iron, for as this part of the forge and the anvil wasdoomed to be drowned every tide, or twice every day, besides beingexposed to the fury of all the storms that might chance to blow, itbehoved them to fix things down with unusual firmness.
The block of timber for supporting the anvil was fixed in the samemanner, but the anvil itself was left to depend on its own weight andthe small stud fitted into the bottom of it.
The bellows, however, were too delicate to be left exposed to suchforces as the stormy winds and waves, they were therefore shipped andunshipped every tide, and conveyed to and from the rock in the boatswith the men.
Dove and Ruby wrought together like heroes. They were both so powerfulthat the heavy implements they wielded seemed to possess no weight whenin their strong hands, and their bodies were so lithe and active as togive the impression of men rejoicing, revelling, in the enjoyment oftheir work.
"That's your sort; hit him hard, he's got no friends," said Dove,turning a mass of red-hot metal from side to side, while Ruby pounded itwith a mighty hammer, as if it were a piece of putty.
"Fire and steel for ever," observed Ruby, as he made the sparks flyright and left. "Hallo! the tide's rising."
"Ho! so it is," cried the smith, finishing off the piece of work with asmall hammer, while Ruby rested on the one he had used and wiped theperspiration from his brow. "It always serves me in this way,
lad,"continued the smith, without pausing for a moment in his work. "Blowaway, Ruby, the sea is my greatest enemy. Every day, a'most, it washesme away from my work. In calm weather, it creeps up my legs, and thelegs o' the forge too, till it gradually puts out the fire, and in roughweather it sends up a wave sometimes that sweeps the whole concern blackout at one shot."
"It will _creep_ you out to-day, evidently," said Ruby, as the waterbegan to come about his toes.
"Never mind, lad, we'll have time to finish them picks this tide, if wework fast."
Thus they toiled and moiled, with their heads and shoulders in smoke andfire, and their feet in water.
Gradually the tide rose.
"Pump away, Ruby! Keep the pot bilin', my boy," said the smith.
"The wind blowin', you mean. I say, Dove, do the other men like thework here?"
"Like it, ay, they like it well. At fist we were somewhat afraid o' thelandin' in rough weather, but we've got used to that now. The only badthing about it is in the rolling o' that horrible _Pharos_. She's sobad in a gale that I sometimes think she'll roll right over like a cask.Most of us get sick then, but I don't think any of 'em are as bad asme. They seem to be gettin' used to that too. I wish I could. Anotherblow, Ruby."
"Time's up," shouted one of the men.
"Hold on just for a minute or two," pleaded the smith, who, with hisassistant, was by this time standing nearly knee-deep in water.
The sea had filled the pit some time before, and driven the men out ofit. These busied themselves in collecting the tools and seeing thatnothing was left lying about, while the men who were engaged on thoseparts of the rocks that were a few inches higher, continued theirlabours until the water crept up to them. Then they collected theirtools, and went to the boats, which lay awaiting them at the westernlanding-place.
"Now, Dove," cried the landing-master, "come along; the crabs will beattacking your toes if you don't."
"It's a shame to gi'e Ruby the chance o' a sair throat the very firstday," cried John Watt.
"Just half a minute more," said the smith, examining a pickaxe, which hewas getting up to that delicate point of heat which is requisite to giveit proper temper.
While he gazed earnestly into the glowing coals a gentle hissing soundwas heard below the frame of the forge, then a gurgle, and the firebecame suddenly dark and went out!
"I knowed it! always the way!" cried Dove, with a look ofdisappointment. "Come, lad, up with the bellows now, and don't forgetthe tongs."
In a few minutes more the boats pushed off and returned to the _Pharos_,three and a half hours of good work having been accomplished before thetide drove them away.
Soon afterwards the sea overflowed the whole of the rock, andobliterated the scene of those busy operations as completely as thoughit had never been!