In the distance, with the sun playing on it and the sea gulls swooping about its top, it seemed something slender and ethereal. It was only when one was close at hand that its real strength and solidity could be appreciated.
It was built on a solid rock foundation that sloped down into the sea many feet distant from its base. The tower was circular in form so as to offer as little surface as possible to the wind from whatever quarter it might blow. The walls at the bottom, where the force of the waves spent itself, were many feet thick, but they grew thinner as the tower rose in the air. At the top was the enormous light of many thousand candle power. It was the alternating kind, and every fifteen seconds it threw out a ray that could be seen by mariners for many miles.
The lighthouse stood about a mile from the mainland, and all the household supplies had to be brought over by Lester or his father from the little village of Bartanet. Whatever was needed for the light itself came at stated intervals on the government cutters that cruised along that section of the coast.
The boys, under Lester"s guidance, had long before this explored every portion of the lighthouse and wondered at the marvels of the machinery that set the light in motion and kept it going automatically through the night. Brought up in inland towns, all this was new to them, and their curiosity and interest were insatiable.
Now as they watched it growing larger as they drew nearer, they shared the delight and pride of Lester in the n.o.ble structure of which his father was the guardian.
"Isn"t it glorious?" demanded Fred.
"Think of the lives that have been saved by it," said Teddy.
"And will be saved by it during the next hundred years," added Bill.
"I wonder if poor Mr. Montgomery saw it on that last cruise of his,"
pondered Fred.
"He must have, if the smugglers really came this way," answered Lester.
"That was only about nine years ago, you remember Ross said, and the lighthouse has stood for twenty years."
"Has your father had charge of it all that time?" asked Bill.
"No, he was appointed about twelve years ago."
"Then he must have been here at the time the gold was stolen," said Teddy eagerly. "I wonder if he heard anything about the matter."
"I never heard him speak about it, but I shouldn"t be a bit surprised if he had. There are so many old salts that run over to spin yarns with him, that there"s very little sea gossip going around that he doesn"t hear at one time or another."
"Let"s ask him," suggested Bill.
"Surely we will. He may be able to tell us something that Ross himself doesn"t know."
"In that case, the next time we meet Ross it will be our turn to look wise and mysterious," laughed Fred.
"Or we can bargain with him. We"ll tell him what we know in return for what he was going to tell us but didn"t," added his brother.
"We"ll have to come to something like that sooner or later," said Lester decidedly. "It"s all nonsense our going round blindly, when each might be able to help the other. A sick man ought to tell everything to his doctor, and a prisoner oughtn"t to keep anything back from his lawyer.
When he does, he has no one to blame but himself if things don"t go right. I"m going to put it up to Ross, full and plain, the next time I see him."
"I wonder when that will be," murmured Teddy.
"Before long I hope. If he doesn"t come over to see us, we"ll go up to Oakland to see him."
"How far is Oakland from here?" asked Bill.
"Not more than thirty miles. With a good wind we can make it in a few hours. But I think I see father standing on the platform of the tower.
Take a look, Bill, and tell me if it is. My eyes are pretty good, but yours are better."
"That"s who it is," p.r.o.nounced Bill, after a minute"s scrutiny. "He has a pair of gla.s.ses in his hands. There, he"s waving to us."
"Dear old dad!" exclaimed Lester. "I suppose he"s worried himself half sick, wondering what had become of us. But he knows now that we are safe, and with this wind we"ll not be more than twenty minutes or half an hour in getting in."
They flew along over the waves, cunningly coaxing every inch of speed out of the _Ariel_, and in less time than Lester had predicted they rounded to at the little dock on the leeward side of the lighthouse rock. A bronzed, elderly man, of medium height, came hurriedly down to meet them.
"Thank G.o.d, you are safe!" he exclaimed, as he grasped Lester"s hand, then that of each of the boys in turn. "I haven"t been able to think of anything but you all night long. What happened to you?"
"It"s a long story, Dad," said Lester, beaming affectionately on his father, as, after fastening the _Ariel_, they all walked up to the lighthouse. "We picked up a fellow that had been carried overboard from his motor boat, and by that time the storm had grown so bad that we had to run for it to the nearest place that offered us shelter."
"And where was that?"
"Up in Sentinel Cove. You know, where those two big rocks stand at the entrance."
"Do you mean to say that you took the boat through that entrance while that storm was raging?" asked his father, in a tone in which surprise and pride were equally blended.
"There wasn"t anything else to do," answered Lester.
"You ought to have seen the way he shot through there, Mr. Lee," put in Fred. "It was a fine bit of seamanship. He"s your own son when it comes to sailing."
"I"m glad I didn"t see him," was the answer. "It would have made my hair grayer than it is, and that"s gray enough. But all"s well that ends well, and I needn"t tell you how thankful I am to have you turn up safe and sound. It wasn"t only my own boy, but I feel that I"m responsible for you young chaps, too, while you"re visiting here."
The boys had grown very fond of this kindly, hearty man who was their friend"s father. He had made them instantly welcome and given them the run of the place. His means were limited but his heart was big, and from the outset he had spared no pains to make them feel at home and to give them a good time.
There were no women on the little island, as Lester"s mother had died ten years before. Because of this, the father and son, having no one but each other, were bound together by the strongest affection.
Their housekeeping was of the simplest kind, but both of them were prime cooks and they set such an abundant table that even the boys with their ravenous appet.i.tes were completely satisfied. They even found a certain pleasure in the lack of some of the "tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs," as Teddy called them, that had surrounded them in their more elaborate homes. It gave them a sense of freedom, and the whole adventure became a sort of exalted camping out.
Bill"s life and Fred"s and Teddy"s recent experiences in the West had hardened and toughened them and also made them more self-reliant. The breezy outdoor life had become almost a necessity to them. So they entered heartily into the domestic arrangements at Bartanet Shoals, making their own beds and helping to prepare the meals. It is probable that some of their women relatives would have sniffed contemptuously at some of the results they reached, but this bothered them not at all.
They ate like wolves, slept like logs and were content.
Mr. Lee had followed the sea for many years. When scarcely out of his teens, he had entered the navy. Later, he had shipped as a whaler, and the boys listened breathlessly to the thrilling stories he had to tell of his adventures in that perilous calling. After his wife"s death, he felt that the interests of his son required that he should stay at home; so he had applied for the position of lighthouse keeper at Bartanet Shoals, and had received it.
"You boys must be half starved," he said, as they entered the living room of the lighthouse. "As I remember, you didn"t have anything when you started out except a few slices of bacon, and those wouldn"t go far with such a hungry crew as you are."
"Guess again, Dad," laughed Lester. "We didn"t exactly starve last night and this morning, did we, boys?"
"Um-yum," a.s.sented Fred, "I should say not! Clam soup and fried bacon and broiled bluefish and hot coffee! Nothing more than that. And we didn"t do a thing to them, eh, fellows?"
"Not a thing!" chorused Bill and Teddy fervently.
Mr. Lee"s eyes twinkled.
"I"m afraid I"ve made an awful mistake then," he said soberly. "I thought you"d be nearly famished, and so I spread myself in getting up an extra good dinner. But of course, if you"ve had so many good things, you won"t want anything more and I"ll have to eat all alone."
He threw open the dining-room door and savory odors issued forth.
"Lead me to it!" shouted Bill. The next moment there was a regular football rush, as the four laughing boys tried to beat each other to the table.