CHAPTER XXIX
THE RIGHT LIGHTS
"What has happened!" cried the keeper. "The light is flashing wrong!There is a steamer outside the bar! It will be wrecked! Who did it?Where is my assistant? There's been foul work here! I was waylaid on myway back when I found my sister was not ill. I just managed to get awayfrom the men. Speak, some of you! Quick!"
The keeper was panting from his exertions and from the excitement. Hisface was drawn and pale, and his eyes were wild, while his hair, mattedby the rain, for he had lost his hat, straggled about his forehead.
"The scoundrels are in possession of the tower!" cried Jerry. "We mustattack them and set the right light!"
"Come on!" cried the keeper, seizing the poker Jess had used to burnthe door. "Come on! I'll give 'em battle!"
His eyes glared, in the fierceness of his righteous anger, at thosewho would do so dastardly a deed.
"Come on!" cried Ned, seizing a heavy billet of wood.
"I'll call the police on the telephone!" exclaimed Bob, springing forthe instrument. "We'll need help!"
"I'll not wait for the police!" fairly shouted the keeper. "I'll tackle'em single handed if need be!"
Bob rang up central, and, not waiting to be connected with the distantpolice station, told the operator what the trouble was, imploring thataid be sent promptly. Then he ran to join his companions. Jess wascrying in one corner of the room.
Mr. Hardack led the way to the stairs which extended up inside thetower to the lantern. He fairly ran up the stone steps, followed by theboys. He was shouting challenges to the men as he ran.
"Let me get at you!" he yelled. "I'll show you how an old man canfight!"
Suddenly from above them a door slammed shut. There was the clicking ofa lock. Then, as they came to the heavy portal, which gave access tothe room where the lantern was, a voice cried:
"You're too late this time, old man!"
Too late! The men had shut themselves up in the top of the tower, andcould control the working of the light to suit their evil purposes. Thekeeper could not get in.
Mr. Hardack beat upon the door with the poker. Ned hammered it with theblock of wood.
"Let me in!" cried the aged man. "Let me in! Do you want to send theship to the bottom?"
"That's just what we do!" was the mocking response.
"Get an axe and chop the door down!" cried Jerry.
"It would take too long," replied the keeper, in a strangely calmvoice. "It is bound with iron, and is double thick. There is no helpfor it. The steamer will be lost!"
Footsteps were heard coming up the stairs.
"Maybe help is at hand," said the keeper hopefully.
Then Jess came into view. In her hand she held something which sheextended to Mr. Hardack.
"Here is your old horse pistol, uncle!" she exclaimed. "It is loadedwith a heavy charge. Fire it through the lock and shatter it! I heardyou pounding on the door and knew they had locked it!"
"Hurrah for you, Jess!" called Ned, and the girl blushed through hertears.
Mr. Hardack placed the muzzle of the ancient weapon against the bigkeyhole. He hesitated a moment, listening to the roar of the stormwithout, and the steady whirr of the machinery in the tower, as itrevolved the false lenses.
_Bang!_
It sounded as though a cannon had been fired, so loudly did the reportof the pistol echo in the narrow tower. There was a splitting andrending of wood, a snap as of broken springs and a clatter as pieces ofthe lock fell on the stone steps.
"Come on, boys!" cried the old man, as he threw all his weight againstthe door. The shattered lock gave, and they rushed through the smoke onup the steps.
"Go back! Go back!" cried two men standing on the top landing. Behindthem glowed the big light. It almost blinded the boys. They hesitated asecond or two.
"Scoundrels!" cried the keeper.
He raised the poker threateningly and leaped forward.
"Come on! All together!" yelled Ned. "We can handle 'em! Come on, Jerryand Bob!"
Forward they went, the boys and the aged keeper, straight at the twomen. The fellows held big wrenches in their hands. Jerry saw one aima blow at Mr. Hardack. It struck the old man on the side of the head,but, though he staggered, he did not fall. Then he raised his poker andbrought it down on the arm of the man who had hit him. The wrecker gavea cry and the wrench fell from his nerveless fingers.
Ned sprang at the assailant of the keeper. The fellow stepped back. Hehad lost the use of one arm from the blow of the poker. Ned grabbed hisother hand and bore him to the stone floor. There was a hard struggle,but Ned held on. Mr. Hardack, recovering from the blow on his head,came to the boy's aid.
In the meanwhile Jerry and Bob had attacked the other man. He keptthem at bay for a little while by waving the big wrench back and forthin front of him. The boys tried to dodge in but could not. Then Jerrysuddenly fell to the floor. Before the man knew what was up the boy hadreached forward, under the swinging tool, and grabbed the man by thelegs. He gave a strong yank, and the wrecker went down in a heap. Bobthrew himself on top of him.
For several seconds there was a hard struggle. Both scoundrels triedto break away, but the boys and the keeper were too much for them. Atlast they were quiet.
"The light! The light!" cried Mr. Hardack. "We must set the rightlight!"
"I'll do it, uncle!" exclaimed Jess, running into the room. She hadbeen hiding on the stairs, waiting the outcome of the struggle. "I'llset the right light!"
She leaped over the prostrate body of the man her uncle and Ned wereholding down. Into the lantern room she went.
It was the work of but an instant to rip from the big white lens, theblack piece of paper the men had pasted over it to conceal the flashes.She threw it on the floor.
Then out through the storm, over the tempestuous sea, there flashed theright signal,--a white glow, followed by two red ones.
"Oh, that it may be in time to save the ship!" the girl prayed.
Out on the deep the big steamer pitched and tossed in the grip of thewaves. The lookout was scanning the blackness for the sight of the nextlighthouse. Suddenly there flashed across his eyes a white shaft ofillumination, followed by two red ones. The pilot saw them at the sametime.
"Something's wrong!" the steersman exclaimed. "There is the South lightnow! We have been standing in! We are almost on the rocks! Some onechanged the lights!"
There were frantic signals to the engine room. The pilot spun the steamsteering gear around so fast he almost broke the rudder chains. Slowlythe great steamer changed her course and stood out to sea.
Yet so near had she been to the rocks and sand bars that five minutesmore and she would have been lost. The passengers asleep in theirstaterooms never knew how close they were to death.
Back in the lighthouse there were anxious hearts, hearts that beat highlest soon might be heard the booming guns of a ship in distress, orsoon might be seen the flaring rockets that told a steamer had gone onthe rocks.
Suddenly from below, at the foot of the tower, above the roar of thestorm, a voice called:
"What's wrong here? Where are you, Hardack? What's the matter with thelight?"
"It's Salt Water Sam!" shouted Jerry. "Help Sam! Come up and bringropes with you!"
There was the welcome sound of feet ascending the stone stairway. Intothe room came the old sailor and Captain Jenkinson. They took in thesituation at a glance. In a few minutes the two scoundrels had beensecurely tied.
"Is the light all right?" was Sam's first question, for he knew whatthat meant on such a night.
"Thanks to Jess, it is," replied Ned, and the girl ran away to escapethe admiring eyes.
"How did you get here?" asked Jerry of Sam.
"Why some of us happened to be out fishing just before the storm broke,and we noticed the light wasn't flashing right. I hurried ashore andmet Captain Jenkinson. He had noticed the same thing, so we decidedto investigate. We came over in his boat, the _Three Bells_. What hashappened
here?"
CHAPTER XXX
JESSICA'S FATHER--CONCLUSION
"The scoundrels tried to change the light and wreck a steamer coming upthe coast," replied Mr. Hardack. "If it hadn't been for the boys herethey would have succeeded."
"If it hadn't been for Jess we could have done nothing," put in Jerry."They had us locked up."
"Let's have the whole yarn," suggested Sam.
Ned related what he had heard of the plot that night he had hidden inthe _Dartaway_, and told how he and the boys on reaching the lighthousehad been left in charge with the new assistant while Mr. Hardack wentto see his sick sister.
"And that message was all a fake," said the keeper. "My sister wasn'tsick at all. I couldn't find out who sent it, but I thought somethingwas wrong, and I hurried back. On the way I was stopped by two men whowanted to pick a quarrel with me. They tried to take me off to a lonelyhut, but I broke away and came on through the storm. You can imaginemy feelings when I got here and saw the light flashing wrong."
Then the boys told the rest of the tale, including the successfulefforts of Jess to burn the lock from the door.
"But we haven't heard how she happened to arrive at just the righttime," said Bob. "Call her."
The girl came into the kitchen where they all were, the two prisonershaving been placed in the storeroom.
"What happened to you, Jess?" asked her uncle.
"I jumped overboard and swam ashore," said the girl.
"You jumped overboard?"
"Yes, that Nixon fellow took me for a ride in his boat. Then the enginegot out of order, or he pretended it did, and we couldn't get back. Iwanted him to signal to some other boat but he wouldn't. Then I gotmad. He kept me out there quite a way from shore, saying all the whilethe engine would soon be fixed. But when I saw him taking some screwsout I knew he wasn't trying to fix the machinery, but was playing atrick to detain me. Then I jumped into the water and swam. I didn'thave much trouble. I'm a good swimmer, and it wasn't so very far."
"You're a brave girl!" exclaimed Sam warmly, and Jess tried to run awayagain, but they would not let her.
The police whom Bob had telephoned for soon arrived, and took charge ofthe two men. They were eventually sent to prison for long terms.
Search was made for the others of the gang, but they, including BillBerry, had escaped in the sloop. As for Noddy Nixon, he left the summerresort that night, disappearing soon after he brought in his boatfrom which Jess had escaped. At the hut near the cove, later, amongBill's belongings, was found the diamond ring and the case of specimenmosquitoes stolen from Uriah Snodgrass.
"Well, this will delight the professor!" cried Jerry, when he heard ofthe find. "I'll wager he'll think more of the mosquitoes than of thediamond ring." It may be added that the professor was delighted overthe recovery of his property and when he heard of what the boys hadaccomplished he praised them highly.
It was learned afterward that Noddy had no idea of the serious plot themen had planned. Bill Berry had enlisted the youth's aid in gettingJess out of the way, on the pretense that only a harmless trick was tobe played on the keeper. Noddy's previous acquaintance with the girlmade this easy. But Noddy, after Jess left him so suddenly, thought itbest to make himself scarce. Bill, it seems, had written to him earlyin the season to come to the summer resort near the lighthouse.
It was the next afternoon when the boys were again on a visit to thelighthouse that they learned how near the steamer had been to thedangerous rocks. Some men of the life saving station had seen herapproach, and then veer out again suddenly as the light was changed.
"I declare I don't know how to thank you boys," said Mr. Hardack. "Youcertainly are wonders."
"Jess had us all beaten," spoke Ned, wondering where she was.
"Oh, yes, poor Jessica. I wish I could help her out of her trouble asshe and you helped me."
"What trouble?" asked Ned.
"Didn't I ever tell you? I started to several times, but it must haveslipped my mind. Her father has been missing for several months, andI've not been able to locate him. He's my only brother, quite an oldman, with white hair, whiter than mine."
The boys looked at each other. They all had the same thought,--of theman in the railroad wreck.
"He was a miner out west," Mr. Hardack went on. "He went there severalyears ago and left his daughter with me, because it was a wild countryhe was in. I got word a few months ago that he had started east, havingmade quite some money. He was to come here but he never arrived. We'vebeen waiting for him since, and Jess is quite worried. I wrote to thepersons who used to know him, but they said he had left the miningcamp, and they did not know where he was. I wish I could locate him."
Ned felt a lump coming up in his throat. The other lads seemedstrangely affected. It was Jerry who spoke first.
"Mr. Hardack," he said. "I don't want to raise any false hopes, but Ithink we can put you on the track of Jessica's father."
"Where is he? Tell me! Oh, I must go to him if he is in trouble!"
"If he is the man I think him to be, he is in the hospital atCresville. We saved a man from a railroad wreck, who, in his delirium,murmured something about 'Jess' and the 'great light.' I think hemust have meant your niece, and the 'great light' referred to thelighthouse."
"Oh, I only hope so!" exclaimed Mr. Hardack. "The loss of her fatherhas almost broken Jessica's heart. She is in mourning for her deadmother. How can we find out if the man of the wreck is my brother?"
"I can telephone to Dr. Bounce," replied Jerry. "The man may haverecovered by now."
It took some time to get the long-distance connection on the telephonefrom the lighthouse to Dr. Bounce. While it was being made Jess cameinto the room.
"Jess--dear--Jessica," stammered her uncle. "Would you mind gettingdinner?" She left the room, a little surprised at the serious looks onthe faces of the boys and her uncle. "I didn't want her to hear untilwe know if it's true," said the uncle in a whisper.
At last Jerry was able to converse with Dr. Bounce. The boy's voicetrembled as he inquired about the man of the wreck. The others couldonly hear one side of the conversation, but they guessed the rest.
"You say he's getting better, doctor? That's good. Has he been able togive his name? He has? What is it? Tell me quick! A lot depends on it!Pack? Oh! Hardack! Are you sure? Walter Hardack!"
"It's him! It's him! That's my brother's name!" exclaimed the keeper,jumping up and down in his excitement. "Oh! Jess! Your father's found!The boys did it! Oh! Jess! Praise the good Lord!"
Jess came running into the room, wondering what was up. She looked ather uncle. There were tears in the old man's eyes.
"Your father's found! Your father's found!" was all he could say, as hehugged the now weeping girl to him.
"Come on," said Ned softly. "We can return later." And the chumswithdrew.
Mr. Hardack soon called them back, and made them tell every detail ofthe wreck. They surmised that Jessica's father had been on his way tothe lighthouse when he was injured. His appeal to the boys to find hisdaughter had been no more than the raving of delirium, caused by theinjury to his head, but it had worked itself out in an unexpected way.
The next day, with Ned as her guide, Jess started for Cresville,and a few hours later was clasped in her father's arms. He had comesuccessfully through a serious operation and was now on the road torecovery.
"Well," remarked Jerry to Bob, when Ned had gone away, "we certainlyhad plenty of excitement the last few days. Ned is right in it to thelast. Guess Jessica likes him. Well, she's a mighty nice girl."
"Right you are," replied Bob. "Say, it wasn't any mistake to come herefor a vacation. I hope we will have as much fun next year."
"I hope so," Jerry added. "I wonder if Ned will come back for the restof the season?"
"Bet he'll stay in Cresville now that Jess is there."
"Well the summer is almost over," said Bob a little sorrowfully. "Ofcourse we can't expect to foil a gang of wreckers again, but I hopether
e'll be something just as lively."
There was, and the boys had what they considered even better fun thancentred around the lighthouse. Their further doings will be told of inthe next volume, to be called, "The Motor Boys in Strange Waters; or,Lost in a Floating Forest."
"Come on," said Bob, after a pause. "Let's go out in the boat for aspin. It's a fine day."
"A little lonesome without Ned, though."
"Well, we'll see him again, soon."
They went down to the dock, where they found Salt Water Sam gazingcontemplatively into the water. He was softly singing to himself:
"The Mary Jane, she was a ship As fine as one could wish. I used to sail the seas in her, And sometimes I would fish. One day when I was sailing I chanced to catch a shark. I put him on exhibit In a little seaside park!"
"Well, well, boys, I didn't hear you coming," the sailor went on. "Iwas just thinking of the fun we had."
"Come on for a sail," invited Jerry.
Then the two boys and the old man got into the _Dartaway_ and put offtoward the mouth of the harbor. And here, for a while, we will takeleave of them.
THE END
THE MOTOR BOYS SERIES
By _Clarence Young_
_12mo. illustrated_
_Price per volume, 50 cents._
_Postage, extra, 10 cents._
_Bright up-to-date stories, full of information as well as ofadventure. Read the first volume and you will want all the otherswritten by Mr. Young._
1. THE MOTOR BOYS _or Chums through Thick and Thin_
2. THE MOTOR BOYS OVERLAND _or A Long Trip for Fun and Fortune_
3. THE MOTOR BOYS IN MEXICO _or The Secret of the Buried City_
4. THE MOTOR BOYS ACROSS THE PLAINS _or The Hermit of Lost Lake_
5. THE MOTOR BOYS AFLOAT _or The Cruise of the Dartaway_
6. THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE ATLANTIC _or The Mystery of the Lighthouse_
7. THE MOTOR BOYS IN STRANGE WATERS _or Lost in a Floating Forest_
8. THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE PACIFIC _or The Young Derelict Hunters_
9. THE MOTOR BOYS IN THE CLOUDS _or A Trip for Fame and Fortune_
10. THE MOTOR BOYS OVER THE ROCKIES _or A Mystery of the Air_
11. THE MOTOR BOYS OVER THE OCEAN _or A Marvelous Rescue in Mid-Air_
12. THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE WING _or Seeking the Airship Treasure_
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York
Transcriber's Notes:
--Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_); text in bold by "equal" signs (=bold=).
--Printer, punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
--Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
--Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.
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