"Well, I'd like to be a pilot, but I suppose I'd have to work my way up. I'd be willing to start at almost anything, if I could get on a vessel."
"You would, eh?" said the pilot, and then he seemed to be busily thinking.
The two walked down the gangplank and off the pier, meeting no one, for the wind, and an occasional dash of rain, made it unpleasant to be out, and the watchman was probably snugly sitting in some sheltered place.
"This is my boarding place," said Mr. Weatherby at length, as they came to a small house on a street leading up from the lake front. "I can't properly thank you now, but--I wish you'd come and see me to-morrow, when you're not working," he added.
"I'll be glad to call and find out how you are."
"Oh, I'll be all right. Now, be sure to come, I--I may have some good news for you." And with that the old pilot went into the house, leaving a very much wondering youth on the sidewalk.
"Now, why in the world didn't he tell me what he wanted of me, instead of keeping me guessing?" thought Nat, as he made his way back to the dock where Mr. Miller was working. "I wonder what it can be? If he wanted to thank me he could just as well have done it now as to-morrow.
"Maybe he wants to give me a reward," the boy went on musingly. "I don't believe I'd take it. Accepting money for rescuing a boat is all well enough, but not for saving life. Besides, if I hadn't done it somebody else would. No; if he offers me money I don't believe I'll take it. Still, I do need some new clothes," and he glanced down at the rather ragged garments he was wearing.
"I've been waiting for you some time," Mr. Miller said when Nat got back. "I thought you said you wouldn't be gone long on that errand."
"Not a bit of it. I pulled Mr. Weatherby, the pilot, out from between two barges." And Nat proceeded to relate his adventure.
"Well, things are certainly coming your way," remarked Mr. Miller. "Maybe he'll give you a big reward."
"I'd rather he'd give me a good job," returned Nat. "Maybe he could get me a place on some boat. That's what I'd like. I could earn good money then."
"I wouldn't like to see you go away from us, Nat. My wife and I have become quite attached to you."
"I would not like to go, Mr. Miller, for I have been very happy in your home. So I'm not going to think about it."