Kitabı oku: «The Light Keepers: A Story of the United States Light-house Service», sayfa 16

CHAPTER XVI
AS IF FROM THE GRAVE

After Captain Eph had moved into his own room it became necessary, as a matter of course, to carry his food up to him, and when the first meal had been served by Sidney, and eaten by the old keeper without any very great evidence of enjoyment, he said to the lad:

"What's to hinder your messin' with me, Sonny? I didn't realize how kind'er lonesome it was goin' to be up here alone, an' Sammy will be company enough for Uncle Zenas."

"I'll be glad to do it, sir, if the others won't think that I don't want to stay with them."

"I'll 'tend to that part of it," the keeper said sharply. "Things are at a pretty pass if I've got to be shoved up here all by myself, an' can't call on any one to sit with me!"

"You wouldn't be up there, Ephraim Downs, if hadn't been for your own pig-headedness!" Uncle Zenas called from below, and Captain Eph whispered to the lad: "I never thought he could hear me, else I wouldn't have spoken so loud, for he's terrible kind of fretty since his wounds are beginnin' to heal in good shape," and he added in a louder tone to the second assistant, "I reckon I can make talk to Sonny, if I want'er, without your mixin' your tongue in, eh?"

"I'll mix in jest as often as you tell 'bout bein' shoved up there, when you know Sammy an' I were both set against it!" and Uncle Zenas' tone was what might truthfully be called "vinegary."

"Hello down there!" Mr. Peters called from the lantern, and, running to the foot of the stairs, Sidney answered the hail.

"Tell Cap'n Eph there's a dory comin' in from the east'ard. As nigh as I can make out, there are two men aboard, but they don't seem to have her in hand very well."

"A dory from the east'ard," the old keeper repeated, he having heard the first assistant's report. "There's likely to have been trouble out that way, Sonny, for the most venturesome fishermen who ever lived wouldn't be abroad in this blow unless somethin' had gone wrong. Tell Sammy to keep his eye on 'em."

Sidney repeated the instructions as Captain Eph had given them, and a smile overspread his face as he heard Mr. Peters mutter irritably:

"Keep my eye on 'em? I'd like to know what else I can do? Any idjut would have sense enough for that!"

"What's he sayin'?" the keeper asked sharply.

"Nothing more than talking to himself, I guess," Sidney replied, and Captain Eph retorted:

"That's a mighty bad habit Sammy has got. You can't rightfully say that he's makin' back talk; but he chews over a lot of words that kind'er riles a man, 'specially when he hasn't really got a right to find fault. Go up an' see what you can make out, Sonny."

Sidney obeyed promptly, although feeling quite confident that he could not hope to learn anything more than Mr. Peters had already reported.

"There's trouble of some kind out yonder," the first assistant said when he handed the glasses to the lad, "an' the worst of it is, that with both Cap'n Eph an' Uncle Zenas under the weather, we've got to sit still an' see those poor fellows drift past us while we're suckin' our thumbs."

Sidney took the glasses, and after Mr. Peters had pointed out the direction in which he should look, it was possible to see now and then, as she rose on the crest of a wave, a dory in which was a mass of something which might be human beings.

"Can you see 'em?" Mr. Peters asked impatiently, after Sidney had gazed in silence several moments.

"Yes; but I'm trying to make out why you should think that dark stuff may be men."

"Because the craft must have belonged to a fisherman, Sonny, an' they don't very often let their boats go adrift. Then agin, what else could be in her but men?"

The argument was not convincing to the lad; but since there was nothing he could say against it, he returned to make his report to the keeper.

"Ay, Sammy is right," Captain Eph said thoughtfully when Sidney explained what could be seen. "It must be some poor fellows who have been blown away from their vessel while settin' trawls, or hand-line fishin'. Is the dory comin' straight for the ledge?"

"That's the way it looks now, sir."

"An' here I am tied down like a log!" Captain Eph cried bitterly.

"What could be done if you were in good condition, sir? The waves are breaking over the ledge, and the boat-house is nearly under water."

"I know all that, Sonny, an' yet there might be a chance to lend a hand in some way. Tied up as I am, it would be out of the question even to pass 'em a rope if they were right under the window. Bring down the glasses, an' help me move around near the window, where I can look out."

It was necessary for Sidney to ask Mr. Peters to assist him in carrying out the latter portion of the order, and when everything had been done in accordance with his wishes, the old keeper, seated in front of the open window regardless of the chilling wind, gazed intently at the tiny object so far away, in which might be human beings sorely needing assistance.

"They should be close aboard the ledge within an hour," Captain Eph said half to himself, "an' it looks as if she might strike near about here, unless them as are on board can pull her around so's to pass it."

"Do you really think there are men in her, sir?" Sidney asked, as he tried in vain to see the distant object without the aid of glasses.

"That I'd be willin' to swear to, Sonny, though how much life may be in 'em is another matter. They're fishermen, that's certain, an' have likely parted company with their vessel in a fog – "

"What's goin' on up there?" Uncle Zenas cried from below. "It seems as if you'd struck somethin' out of the common, else you're makin' a good deal of talk 'bout nothin'."

"You'd better run down an' tell him what's in sight, Sonny," the old keeper whispered. "Uncle Zenas is one of them fretty men that can't seem to wait with any show of patience when they think anything 'special is goin' on."

"What's the matter?" came in tones of impatience from the kitchen. "Have you all gone crazy?"

"I'm comin' down to tell you about it," Sidney cried, and a moment later the second assistant's face paled as he learned that human beings who stood in sore need of aid were probably near at hand.

"It'll be a case of seein' the poor creeters perish right under our noses!" he exclaimed. "What with Cap'n Eph so lame that he can't stand on more'n one leg, an' me laid up through bein' pretty nigh broiled, this 'ere crew ain't in shape to lend a hand, no matter how much sufferin' may heave in sight."

Mr. Peters had gone into the lantern after helping the lad move Captain Eph, and, because he found it difficult to remain in any one place very long at a time, Sidney went up to him.

The first assistant was standing near the lens, looking into the glass intently, and Sidney asked in surprise:

"What's the matter? Anything wrong there?"

"Not a bit, Sonny; I was tryin' to figger somethin' out."

"Has it to do with the lens, that you are looking at it so sharply?" Sidney asked, and Mr. Peters wheeled suddenly around as he replied:

"I declare I don't know why my eyes happened to be on that, for it hadn't anything to do with what is in my mind. I was tryin' to figger how we might lend a hand if that 'ere dory strikes the ledge, as I reckon she will."

"You couldn't even stand on the rocks, while the sea is running as it is now."

"I ain't so certain 'bout that, though I'll admit that a man couldn't keep his footin' there, an' 'tend to much of anything else; but the tide is ebbin' now, an' it'll be within an hour of low water by the time that 'ere dory gets here. I'm thinkin' you'll be able to see quite a bit of Carys' Ledge by that time. Has Cap'n Eph made out anything new?"

"I didn't stop to ask him when I came up, and I may as well go back now."

Mr. Peters did not attempt to detain the lad; he was so deeply engrossed with the problem which presented itself, that it made little difference whether he was alone, or surrounded by the entire crew.

When he entered the keeper's room Captain Eph asked sharply:

"What's Sammy doin'?"

"Trying to figure out how he can help those who are in the dory, if she strikes the ledge, sir."

"I knew he was up to somethin' of that kind! Sammy may be pig-headed an' irritable at times, but let anything like this come up, an' his heart swells out till it's too big for his body. He never counts the danger if there's a show for helpin' them as are in trouble."

"He asked if you had made out anything new, sir."

"There's no question about men bein' in the dory – two of 'em, an' one's alive, for I saw him climb over the for'ard thwart. I allow they're hopin' the boat will drift this way, believin' we can pick 'em up."

Until this moment there had been a faint hope in Sidney's heart that the dory might have no living freight, and now he grew literally sick with fear. It would be far more horrible for the men to be thrown up on the ledge when nothing might be done to aid them, than when the Nautilus foundered, for then the sufferers could not be seen.

He had turned away that he might not look out upon the cruel sea, which could be so calm and smiling at times, when Captain Eph said suddenly:

"Tell Sammy to come down here. Oh, if I hadn't been so stubborn as to insist on gettin' inter this room!"

Sidney was considerably mystified by these last words; but he hastened to obey the command, and when the first assistant came down-stairs Captain Eph said hurriedly:

"If I'd staid in the kitchen where I belonged, we could have rigged a block to a bar across the outside of the west window, an' by overhaulin' all the spare line in the store room, have enough to make a tackle that would reach from the tower, well down inter the water."

"Yes, but what then?" Mr. Peters asked breathlessly, understanding that the keeper was eager to do something toward saving life.

"With the loose end, well padded so's it wouldn't cut, belayed jest under your arms, there'd be a good chance for you to go well inter the surf, seein's how Uncle Zenas an' I could haul you out all right; but the trouble is that I'm up here, an' he's down there."

"I can fix all that in a shake," Mr. Peters cried excitedly. "Get on my back, an' if I don't have you down there in short order, it'll be owin' to a stroke of hard luck."

Under almost any other circumstances the old keeper would not have made the painful attempt; but he was quite as eager to lend the sufferers a helping hand as was the first assistant, and Sidney was astounded by the rapidity with which the change was made.

Mr. Peters had not waited for Captain Eph to prepare for the move; but, swinging the old man's arms over his shoulders, he half-pulled, half-hoisted him on his back, running down the stairs as swiftly as he could have done without a burden.

Uncle Zenas cried out in alarm at the sudden appearance of the first assistant with the keeper on his back, and when Mr. Peters had lowered him into a chair, Captain Eph said grimly, striving to repress a groan:

"We had to come, Zenas, for we count on bein' ready for that 'ere dory, if so be she drifts in here."

"You look about as fit as I am for anything of that kind, Ephraim Downs," Uncle Zenas cried scornfully. "We're two poor old cripples who can't even help ourselves."

"I ain't so certain 'bout that, Uncle Zenas," the keeper said cheerily, for the hope of aiding others had brightened him up wonderfully. "I'm reckonin' that both you an' I can lend a hand. Hold on an' see what Sammy is doin'."

Mr. Peters had not waited to hear the conversation, but, immediately after depositing the keeper in a chair, had hastened to the store room, returning a moment later with a short length of joist and some seizing stuff.

Opening the window which looked toward the west, he shoved the timber through, pulling it across the aperture on the outside of the tower, and there making it fast.

A second visit to the store room, and he returned with a small pulley block, and a large quantity of rope about the size of that used on vessels as heaving-lines.

By the time he had made the block fast to the timber, Uncle Zenas began to have some idea of the plan, and he cried approvingly:

"You've got a great head, Ephraim, an' I reckon that's why you're so set in your ways. Sammy can stray off quite a bit from the tower, with us to look after him."

"Yes, an' the tide is fallin'," Mr. Peters added as he continued his work of making ready by taking off his coat and vest, and wrapping one end of the line with an old coat.

"There's no need of your goin' out yet a while, Sammy," Captain Eph said as he noted the first assistant's movements.

"I was allowin' that we'd better give the contrivance a try while we had time, so's to make certain it would work smooth."

This seemed a reasonable precaution, and Captain Eph knotted the padded rope around the first assistant's body, after which the window overlooking the eastern side of the ledge was opened, and Mr. Peters clambered up on the sill.

The keeper and Uncle Zenas, sitting near each other, hauled the line taut as it ran through the block, and when Mr. Peters swung himself off the sill of the window, they lowered him slowly to the rocks below.

Sidney, standing near by, could see the first assistant as he went boldly into the surf, and, as the waves carried him from his feet, the two men in the kitchen readily pulled him backward and upward until it was possible for him to regain his footing.

"It's a good plan, Uncle Zenas," Captain Eph said approvingly; "but I allow that Sammy stands a chance to get more or less skin scraped off of him if we're called upon to do the job in a hurry."

"He won't know it until the job is done, an' then we'll have plenty of time to patch him up. Sonny, s'pose you get the glasses, an' keep your eye on the dory."

When Sidney returned to the kitchen with the glasses in his hand, Mr. Peters had just been hauled up through the window, and was standing by the stove while the water, unheeded by Uncle Zenas, ran in streams from his garments to the floor.

It was now possible to see the oncoming dory plainly with the naked eye, for she was hardly more than a mile away, and drifting rapidly toward the ledge; but by the aid of the glasses the lad could make out plainly the forms of the two occupants, one of whom appeared to be crouching in the bow with his head above the rail as if watching, while the other lay without movement in the stern.

"She couldn't make a better course for this 'ere ledge if the best sailor who ever walked a plank was steerin' her," Captain Eph said as he looked seaward. "She'll strike nearabout the cove, an' the question is whether Sammy can get that far before bein' knocked down."

"Don't be in too big a hurry to pull me out, an' I'll get mighty near to those fellows, if so be the dory strikes anywhere near where we're expectin'," Mr. Peters said as he came toward the window. "We won't be havin' any too much time, if I start now," and he stepped out of the window, clutching the sill until the two at the rope were ready to lower him away.

Sidney no longer held the glasses to his eyes. It was possible to see everything plainly by this time, and, breathing heavily because of his excitement, the lad watched intently the movements of the boat, which now seemed to be close upon the rocks.

The man in the bow was standing up, having seen Mr. Peters' descent from the window, and understanding how a rescue was to be effected, if indeed such should prove to be the case.

Tossing on the crest of a wave, and then disappearing entirely in the trough of the sea, the dory pitched and staggered onward, coming as straight as an arrow for the tower, despite the plunging and rolling.

The man in the bow stepped toward the stern and appeared to be trying to drag the other to his feet; but it was as if he clutched one from whom life had already departed, and, with a gesture of despair, he went forward to the extreme bow.

Mr. Peters had made his way over the rocks to the very line of surf, and stood there until the moment should come for the supreme effort, while Uncle Zenas and Captain Eph watched his every movement closely, prepared to slacken the rope or haul in as should be necessary when the battle with the waves was begun. Nearly in the center of the room, but where he could see all that took place, Sidney stood, his eyes fixed on the boat while his hands were clenched as if by much straining of the muscles he might aid in the coming struggle.

Then the dory was raised high in the air by a huge comber, and Mr. Peters ran swiftly forward, knowing when that crest of water fell, the frail craft would be dashed upon the rocks.

There was an instant of agonizing suspense, and then the brave light keeper was lost to view amid the swirl of water and foam.

While one might have counted ten, neither men nor boat could be distinguished in the turmoil, and then came a sudden jerk on the line as the undertow carried Mr. Peters seaward, when Captain Eph shouted hoarsely:

"Haul! Haul for your life, Zenas!" and Sidney grasped the line, putting forth all his strength with the keepers, that their comrade might the more quickly be drawn to the surface.

The strain upon the rope seemed to be enormous; it was quite as much as the three could do to gather in any of the length, and Captain Eph was muttering half to himself that the line was not sufficiently large to bear the weight, when Uncle Zenas cried excitedly:

"He's got one of 'em! He's got one, an' what's more, the little runt looks as if he was all right. Sammy Peters isn't anybody's fool, an' that's a living fact!"

Now the rope came in more readily, and as the three hauled, more gently after a time lest their comrade be dragged too roughly across the jagged rocks, Mr. Peters staggered to his feet as he held close to his breast the man whose life he had saved at the peril of his own.

"The waves won't bother him now; don't do any more than take in the slack!" Captain Eph cried, and, raising his voice, he shouted as the wind lulled for an instant, "What about the other one, Sammy?"

"He was the same as dead before the boat struck, so this fellow tells me, leastways, I didn't see anything of him," Mr. Peters replied as he staggered onward toward the tower, and when he reached the base it could be seen that he was unfastening the rope from his body.

"What's goin' on now?" Captain Eph demanded.

"I'll send this man up first, for I ain't sure as he has got strength enough left to make himself fast," Mr. Peters replied, and a moment later he gave the word, "Haul away!"

"Stand by to fend off, Sonny," Uncle Zenas cried, and just as Sidney stepped to the window in obedience to the command, the head of the rescued man appeared above the sill.

Sidney screamed shrilly as if in terror, and the stranger gave every evidence of fear while he seemed to shrink back, until Captain Eph cried sharply:

"What's the matter with you, Sonny? Why don't you bear a hand? There's nothin' to be afraid of; you've seen sailors who were in worse shape than he is."

"It frightened me because he looked so much like Mr. Sawyer," the lad said hesitatingly as he went to the window again, and the stranger cried hoarsely:

"Are you Sidney Harlow?"

"Hold hard, matey!" Captain Eph said, shaking the rope as if to attract the rescued man's attention. "I don't allow that it's the proper time, while you're strung up here on the end of a line, to do very much tongue-waggin', leastways, if it is, I'd rather somebody else held turn. Shin in, an' be quick about it, for we can't afford to let the only sound keeper we've got on this 'ere light freeze to death on your account."

The stranger clambered over the window-sill, unfastened the rope from his body, and flung the free end down to Mr. Peters, after which he took Sidney's face in both his hands, as he asked again:

"Are you Sidney Harlow?"

"Of course I am; but you can't be Mr. Sawyer?"

"Why not, lad?"

"Because he was drowned. I saw him sink!"

"Ay, lad, but he came up within reach of the wreckage we went out to look at. Again and again I yelled while you were cruising around expecting to see me come to the surface near where I had disappeared; but you didn't hear me, and then the fog shut down again. I gave myself up for lost; but within an hour two fishermen in a dory blundered along, and took me to their vessel three or four miles away. There was no such thing as finding the West Wind while the sea was covered with fog so thick that it could almost be cut with a knife, and I've served an apprenticeship as fisherman, eating my heart out because the skipper wouldn't put into port until he had a full fare."

Then Mr. Sawyer, one-time mate of the schooner West Wind, lifted Sidney in his arms as if he had been a baby, and covered his face with kisses, while Captain Eph and Uncle Zenas, regardless of the shivering first assistant on the rocks below, stared at the two in open-mouthed astonishment.

"Do you mean to tell me you're the sailorman who fell out of the motor boat, leavin' Sonny alone?" the old keeper cried as soon as the stranger had ceased caressing the lad.

"I'm the same one," Mr. Sawyer replied with a laugh, "an' it surely seems as if I wasn't born to be drowned, for this is the second time I've been rescued when the chances were big against me; but how does it happen that Sidney is here, and where is the West Wind?"

"If you people are countin' on spinnin' yarns, don't you think it would be a good idee to pull me in where I wouldn't freeze to death quite so soon?" Mr. Peters cried from the ledge beneath the window. "I don't want to be fussy; but I'd rather be behind the stove than out here."

"I declare if I hadn't forgot all about poor little Sammy!" Captain Eph cried in a tone of contrition. "He must be chilled clean through to the bone by this time. Haul in, Uncle Zenas, an' stand by for squalls when he gets here, 'cause his temper ain't of the best jest now, an' there's good reason for losin' it."

Two minutes later Mr. Peters clambered through the window, looking around for a moment, and then he said that which gave his comrades to understand that he had heard all Mr. Sawyer said:

"I'm wonderin' how big a schooner I could pull inter the cove, if I hadn't anybody but two blessed old cripples to help me," and Uncle Zenas asked in surprise:

"What on earth do you mean, Sammy?"

"I was only tryin' to figger the thing out, 'cause after we've saved all hands belongin' to the West Wind, it will be a shame to let the schooner drift around instead of haulin' her up on the ledge," and having said this Mr. Peters slowly ascended to his own room that he might put on dry clothing.

This served to remind Captain Eph that Mr. Sawyer needed some attention, and he said to Sidney:

"S'pose you take the mate up-stairs, an' give him anything of mine that he can wear, Sonny? By the time he's made a change, Uncle Zenas will have plenty of hot coffee, which I reckon he'll be glad to drink."

Sidney did as he was bidden, the mate following at his heels, and when the two had disappeared from view Uncle Zenas said solemnly:

"The ocean does cut some queer capers now an' then; but the queerest I've ever heard of is that both them who left the West Wind in the motor boat should have drifted in here to Carys' Ledge."

And Captain Eph replied in quite as grave a tone:

"If this last one brings us as much comfort as the first has, we'll be two mighty lucky old men, Uncle Zenas."