“I never thought you could do it, Jack,” exclaimed Tom, fixing admiring eyes on his chum. “It was the cleverest bit of boat handling I’ve ever seen.”
“Oh, it wasn’t so very hard,” rejoined Jack modestly; “it was getting on a tack that would bring me flying through, that was the hard part.”
“I was scared stiff, I can tell you. I thought sure we’d be battered to a pulp on those rocks.”
“All the more credit to you for not making a holler. Luckily I had too much to do to think of getting scared. But it’s all over now, and I’m not a bit sorry, I can tell you. All the skin is off my hands. But—— Hullo! there comes the lightkeeper down to meet us.”
The same man whom they had seen run out on the beach was now coming down to a sort of rough wharf which stretched out into the lagoon. He was a tall chap, thin and lanky, with an unhealthy-looking complexion. As they drew closer they saw that his face was streaked with shadows and drawn in tense lines. His eyes were sunken and blurred. Apparently he was not far off from a breakdown.
“Oh, but I’m glad you’ve come!” he exclaimed in a voice that was half hysterical. “My partner has been gone for more than two days! I guess that fog delayed him getting back, and the light’s gone bad—she’s gone bad. Last night she wouldn’t shine, and there are big reefs that stretch out for miles that her light warns of.”
The boys tied the boat and climbed up a flight of rough steps to reach the surface of the wharf. The man greeted them with open hands.
“I should have gone crazy if you had not come!” he exclaimed. “I should have gone crazy!”
“What’s the matter with the light?” asked Jack.
“I don’t know. The boss is the mechanic. He could have fixed it, but he went away on the supply ship. He should have been back last night, but he didn’t come. Oh, I have had a terrible night!”
“Surely something can be done,” said Tom, really distressed by the man’s excitement.
“I don’t know. I can’t tell what is the matter,” was the rejoinder.
“Well, I have some little mechanical skill,” replied Jack. “Suppose we go up to your house and have some breakfast, of which you seem to be in need and we certainly are, and then I and my cousin, Tom Jesson here, will go to work on your light.”