Kitabı oku: «The Light Keepers: A Story of the United States Light-house Service», sayfa 6
CHAPTER VI
THE VOYAGE
Mr. Peters was not mistaken as to the time when he would finish the task of repairing the motor boat, and at the dinner-table on the day after Captain Eph and Sidney had had such a narrow escape from being run down in the fog, he announced that his work was at an end.
"She's in as good a condition as I can ever put her, an' outside of a reg'lar ship carpenter, I'd like to see the man who would do a neater job. When she's had a coat of paint, it would puzzle a Quaker lawyer to make out to tell that she'd ever been stove."
"There's one thing I like about our Sammy," Uncle Zenas said in a confidential tone to Sidney. "He'll never be hung because of not blowin' his own horn loud enough, an' that's really the fact."
"On this 'ere ledge a man has got to speak for himself, else there's danger of forgettin' whether or no he's alive," Mr. Peters replied in a placid tone. "It ain't often I get a chance for horn-blowin', owin' to the noise you an' Cap'n Eph make about yourselves. What do you say to havin' a try at the motor, Sonny?"
Sidney looked toward Captain Eph inquiringly, and the latter replied.
"I can't see as there's anything to hinder, pervidin' you don't run outside the cove. All you want to know is whether it's in workin' order, an' that shouldn't take many minutes. If it so be that we do run over to the mainland, it's my opinion that the voyage can be begun within the next twenty-four hours, for this 'ere fog storm is about at an end, 'cordin' to the looks of things."
Therefore it was that as soon as Sidney had eaten dinner he went to the narrow opening in the rocks where the motor boat was moored at such a distance from the foot of the ways that there could be no danger the waves would dash her against the timbers.
Mr. Peters hauled the little craft in so that the lad could leap aboard from the rocks, and while he examined the motor according to the instructions of the West Wind's engineer, Captain Eph and Uncle Zenas came down on the reef as spectators.
It was not necessary to spend many minutes in order to learn if the machinery was in working order. When Sidney applied the spark which ignites the gas, the screw immediately began to revolve, and he had no difficulty in sending her ahead or astern at will.
"I reckon there's no great need of your spendin' very much time over that end of the business," the keeper said in a tone of satisfaction. "You an' Sammy had better give the engine a thorough cleanin', an' when that has been done I'll try to answer the questions you asked this mornin' about the light, if you come up into the lantern."
Then Captain Eph went back to the tower, and when the two were busily engaged obeying orders, Mr. Peters asked curiously:
"What did the cap'n mean, Sonny, about answerin' your questions?"
"I wanted to know about the lens," Sidney replied. "I can't understand why it is any better to have all those glass rings around the light, which make so much work for the cleaners, than it would be if it was one solid globe."
"So Cap'n Eph thinks he can explain all that, does he?" Mr. Peters said with a queer gurgle in his throat, much as if he were choking. "Wa'al, all I can say is, if he does, it'll be a good deal more'n I've ever heard of his doin' yet. He'll spin a lot of stuff 'bout bendin' the rays, an' after he gets through you won't know quite as much as you did before."
Because he did not understand the meaning of Mr. Peters' remark, Sidney remained silent, and shortly after, the motor having been cleaned thoroughly, he went into the lantern, where he found the keeper awaiting him.
Captain Eph had before him several open books, as if he had been refreshing his memory on the subject of lenses, and immediately Sidney appeared, he said, in an apologetic tone:
"I don't count on bein' able to give you the idee as to the work of the lenses sich as a man ought'er; but I'll try my best, an' if I fail you won't be any worse off than you are now. In the first place this 'ere is what is known as a light of the first order, meanin' the most powerful in the service, an' the lens alone cost about eight thousand dollars. The middle part of the lens is made up of what's known as 'refractors,' which, 'cordin' to my way of tellin' it, are rings of glass makin' a hollow cylinder six feet in diameter, an' thirty inches high. Below it, as is printed here," and Captain Eph pointed with his thumb to one of the open books, "are six triangular rings of glass, ranged in a cylindrical form, an' above it, a crown of thirteen rings of glass, formin' by their union a hollow cage composed of polished glass, ten feet high, an' six feet in diameter, like this 'ere," and Captain Eph waved his hand toward the brilliant apparatus before them, a picture of which is given here.
"But what is the need of making it out of so many pieces?" Sidney asked. "Why wouldn't it be just as well to cover the lamp with a globe, such as is on a house-lamp?"
"That, Sonny, is the hard part of explainin' the business, because I don't know so much about it as I ought'er; but I've heard the inspector talk somethin' like this: The flame of the lamp sends its rays in all directions – up, down, an' sideways; an' what's wanted is to get the light streamin' out in a straight line all around, so the top an' bottom of this 'ere glass cage is put on to bend the rays till they go in the same direction as those in the middle of the flame. 'Cordin' to the inspector, when a ray of light strikes a prism of glass, it turns toward the base, as you'll see in this – wa'al, I don't hardly know what to call it – that I've been drawin' so's you'll understand what the inspector means by bendin' the rays. You'll notice that, except in the middle, the prisms are each set at a different angle, an' with a space between 'em, which allows of catchin' every ray from the lamp – "
"Are you ever comin' down to your supper, or do you count on lettin' all this 'ere food, that's taken me so long to shape up, go to waste jest because you want'er talk 'bout what you don't understand?" was the cry from the kitchen, and Captain Eph said hurriedly as he gathered up the books:
"I reckon we'll have to finish this 'ere talk some other time, for Uncle Zenas does surely seem to be gettin' nervous. He's a mighty handy man 'round a light-house; but I do wish he'd get over bein' so dreadful particular about all hands settin' down to the table the very instant a meal is ready. There are times, like this, when I'd rather linger a little; but I don't dare to on account of his bein' so particular."
Although Captain Eph and Sidney made all possible haste to descend, the cook called out twice more before they could get into the kitchen, and the keeper said soothingly:
"Now, now, Uncle Zenas, you must give a man time to come down-stairs, an' Sonny an' me couldn't have got here any sooner unless we'd tumbled down, which wouldn't have been convenient or comfortable."
"I like to have folks at the table when things are ready," Uncle Zenas replied tartly, and Captain Eph said with a wink at Sidney:
"Then you ought'er give us a little warnin'. Sing out when you begin to put things on the table, an' you'll find us here an' waitin', the same as Sammy is now."
Uncle Zenas made no reply to this remark, and it surely seemed as if the incident was closed when Captain Eph asked that the food might be blessed to them.
"I'm lookin' for clear weather to-morrow," Mr. Peters said as if he expected to be contradicted, and much to his surprise the keeper said promptly:
"So am I. 'Cordin' to the way I figger it out, the wind'll haul to the west'ard when the tide turns, an' this smother will be well out to sea by sunrise."
"An' s'posin' it all turns out as you predict, what about our goin' ashore?" Mr. Peters asked.
"I'll agree to it if it so be Uncle Zenas is willin' to keep ship alone," the keeper replied. "If the wind does haul 'round, it won't be any great hardship if you an' the cook turn out an hour earlier than usual, so's we can get the lantern put to rights early."
"You can call all hands at three o'clock, so far as I'm concerned," Uncle Zenas interrupted, "an' then I'll be so far along with my end of the work that I can give you a lift in the lantern."
"I don't reckon there's any great need of turnin' out quite so early as that; but Sammy might wake me an hour sooner than usual, so's he could get somethin' of a nap, an' we'll make it all hands 'bout four o'clock."
And thus it was arranged when Sidney went to bed, hoping most fervently that he might waken in time to share the watch with Captain Eph; but it so chanced that he did not open his eyes until nearly three o'clock next morning, much to the disappointment.
He hurried into the watch-room as soon as possible, however, and there found the keeper studying over the drawing he had made for the purpose of showing how the rays of light were "bent."
"What are you doing, sir?" Sidney asked laughingly.
"Tryin' to figger this thing out so's to understand it myself," the captain replied grimly. "I put it to you same's I'd heard the inspector talk, but what puzzles me is why the light should go toward the thick end of the prism any quicker than the other way."
Captain Eph had before him all the books of the library which might aid in the work, and Sidney found the problem so interesting that it seemed as if he had no more than begun before Uncle Zenas' voice was heard from the room below, as he said petulantly:
"It strikes me if I was standin' watch I'd know when it was four o'clock. How do you ever expect to get off on your voyage early, Ephraim Downs, if you can't keep better run of the time than this?"
"All right, Uncle Zenas, all right! If you'll call Sammy we'll get our odd chores done up before sunrise," the keeper cried, and the cook replied:
"He'd ought'er be awake by this time; I've turned him clean over twice, an' count on pullin' him out bodily if he don't make some kind of a move before I count five."
The sound of a heavy body striking the floor below told that Mr. Peters had "moved," and Sidney cried in surprise:
"If you'll believe it, I'd almost forgotten that we might go ashore this morning. Has the fog cleared away?"
"Every blessed drop of it went to sea when the tide turned, jest as I allowed; but I got so mixed up about the lens that it went straight out'er my mind. Now it's a case of gettin' things inter shape with a hustle."
Sidney went into the kitchen, believing he could be of more service there than anywhere else, and, thanks to the will with which the crew worked, the start was made in considerably less than an hour after sunrise.
"Lay in all the stores that you've got on the list, for there's no knowin' when you'll have another chance." Uncle Zenas cried as, the voyagers having taken their places, he pushed the bow of the boat out from the rocks.
Sidney reversed the screw until the little craft was clear by the ledge, and then sent her ahead at a fair rate of speed, Captain Eph acting as helmsman.
"There's some sense in goin' ashore this fashion," Mr. Peters said as he lay back in the bow, resting his head on his hands. "If we had a craft like this, I'd feel like takin' a day off every once in a while; but when a man is obleeged to pull a lumberin' old dory a dozen miles or more, it don't seem like takin' much of a rest."
"You go ashore as much as is good for you, Sammy," Captain Eph said gravely. "I don't approve of gallivantin' 'round very much, an' it ain't sich a great spell since you was off duty three whole days."
"That was more'n two years ago," Mr. Peters replied in an injured tone.
"Wa'al, I'll agree it was, an' what do you want? To go away every time the moon changes? If you do, it would be a good idee to look up a different job from tendin' one of the most important lights on this 'ere coast."
Sidney, fearing lest the keeper and his assistant might come to sharp words on the subject of vacations, put an end to the dispute by proposing to show how fast the boat could run when all the power was applied; but Captain Eph had no desire to try experiments.
"Fair an' softly, Sonny, is the best. I've never had much to do with this kind of a craft, an' shouldn't feel overly easy to know you was tryin' to shove her, for nobody can tell what may happen. Let her go along easy-like, 'cause we've got time enough an' to spare 'twixt this an' sunset."
Therefore it was that the boat was kept down to two-thirds the speed which could readily have been maintained, and at the end of two hours she had arrived at a little settlement which to Sidney looked very small and mean; but to Captain Eph and Mr. Peters was almost a metropolis.
When the boat had been made fast to the dock, and the first assistant had clambered ashore, the keeper whispered in Sidney's ear:
"I reckon, Sonny, you'll see a good many things you'd like to have, an', comin' away from the schooner as you did, it ain't likely you've got any great amount of money with you. Now jest take this, an' then you can hold your end up with Sammy, for I expect he'll try to make a terrible big showin' when we go into the shops."
"I don't want a thing, sir, indeed I don't," Sidney replied as he squeezed the old keeper's hand, but without taking the silver pieces which were in it.
"Mr. Peters can make all the showing of money he likes, and it won't make me feel queer."
"But I'd rather you was kind of independent, Sonny, an' it would do me a heap of good if you took it."
Sidney began to understand that Captain Eph would consider it a privilege to supply him with money, and he compromised the matter by saying:
"There isn't a thing that I would be likely to want, sir; but if I should see anything, I'll ask you to buy it for me."
"Will you really an' truly, Sonny?"
"Indeed I will, sir," the lad replied, and then the two joined Mr. Peters on the wharf.
The first assistant led the way up through the one street of the settlement as if he believed the new uniform he wore would cause a great deal of excitement, and he was, in fact, the center of attraction while he remained on shore, for even the children of the village had heard of the three old cronies who kept the light on Carys' Ledge, holding to their duties so closely as to visit the mainland no oftener than once in two or three years.
Captain Eph, with the list of wants in his hand, stopped at the shop in which was the post-office, where he mailed the report with strict injunctions to the postmaster to "see that it left town the first thing in the mornin'," and then began purchasing the supplies, stopping every now and then to ask Sidney in a whisper if he "hadn't seen something he wanted."
Mr. Peters had a little list of his own, much to the surprise of the keeper, who had supposed that all the purchases were to be made from the common purse, and it was not until nearly noon that the business was finished.
The postmaster gave the three customers an urgent invitation to take dinner with him; but Captain Eph pleaded that it was of the utmost importance they get back to the ledge before dark, and at once began to carry his stores to the wharf.
The motor boat was well loaded when the last package had been put on board, and Mr. Peters, who seemed bent on keeping his goods separate from the others, said as he stowed them snugly in the bow:
"I reckon it's well we didn't buy anything more, else we'd had to make two trips in order to carry 'em all. Uncle Zenas will keep himself busy for the next two months cookin' up fancy dishes, 'cordin' to the stuff he ordered. I thought one spell you was goin' to clean the shop out."
"I bought what we agreed on yesterday, an' reckoned that made up the lot; but it seems you wasn't satisfied," Captain Eph said, much as if he was accusing the first assistant of some misdemeanor.
"Oh yes I was; everything you had on the list hit me to a T, for I'm willin' to stand my part of the expense if Uncle Zenas wants to spread himself as a cook, 'cause I can eat my full share three times every day," and Mr. Peters indulged in a gurgling spell, such as always caused Sidney considerable alarm.
"Then what did you need that the rest of us mustn't know anything about?" Captain Eph asked sternly. "When Sonny an' me saw that you wanted to be so terrible private over what you was buyin', we went out on the sidewalk, so's to let you have your fling."
"Yes, I noticed that," Mr. Peters replied, as he continued to stow his goods in the bow with the utmost caution, as if they might be injured in case the motor boat shipped a little water; but he did not make any explanations.
"When you get through fiddlin' with your – whatever it is you bought – we'll get under way," and Captain Eph spoke sharply, as if he was irritated, whereupon Sidney took his station in front of the motor, ready to start the screw when the word should be given; but before the first assistant could reply, even if he had been intending to do so, the postmaster came down on the wharf, moving at a rapid pace as if his business was urgent.
"I reckon you wanted that letter to go in the next mail, eh?"
"Sure, an' there mustn't be any mistake about it, for it's my official report, an' nobody knows what might happen to the Light-House Board if it didn't get to the inspector on time."
"When you was at the store I forgot to ask if anythin' had gone wrong over on the ledge. It kind'er seemed as if there was somethin' out'er the reg'lar, else you wouldn't be in sich a pinch to send a report," and the postmaster looked inquiringly from one to the other.
"Nothin' wrong as I knows of," Captain Eph replied, much as if he was making a great mental effort to recall to mind anything of an alarming nature that had taken place on the ledge.
"Let me see," and the postmaster rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "It must be quite a spell since any of you folks came ashore, ain't it?"
"The first assistant was here a leetle more'n two years ago."
"Yes, yes, I knew it was as long ago as that. Let me see, he didn't have that boy with him then, did he?"
"I reckon not; leastways, not to my knowledge," and Sidney understood that Captain Eph was growing impatient.
"I didn't know but he had jest joined your crew, an' then agin I said to myself, seein's you was in sich a stir about gettin' the report off, it might be there's been a wreck out that way lately, though we haven't been havin' any bad weather since the light-house tender was there last."
Captain Eph made no reply, and Mr. Peters began to re-stow his packages, working so industriously that no one could have expected him to join in the conversation.
"That must be a new boat you've got?" the postmaster continued in a questioning tone. "Does the Government furnish motor boats nowadays?"
"This 'ere ain't a Government craft," Captain Eph said curtly, and then he asked Mr. Peters, "Ain't you ready yet, Sammy?"
"Everything is stowed, an' what ain't I can look after while we're runnin'."
The keeper cast off the hawser, and took his seat in the stern-sheets, while the postmaster walked slowly along the dock as the boat swung out with the current, when he said inquiringly:
"Then there ain't nothin' gone wrong at the ledge? An' I reckon you've taken the boy on to kind'er help you out in the work, eh?"
"Carys' Ledge lays jest where it did when I first took charge of the light, an' if anything had gone wrong you wouldn't see us here, 'cause we'd be there tryin' to put it to rights," Captain Eph said more sharply than before, and he nodded to Sidney as if ordering him to start the engine.
The lad believed he understood the mute command, and an instant later the little craft was moving swiftly away, but not at such a pace as to prevent them from hearing the postmaster cry:
"If anything has gone wrong, an' I can do you a good turn, let me know, for I'm only too glad to oblige my neighbors."
Captain Eph shut his mouth tightly as if to keep back angry words, and when the little craft was a mile or more from the wharf, he said to Mr. Peters:
"I hope, Sammy, you'll let this be a lesson to you. Now you can get an idee of how it sounds when a man tries to pry into other folks' affairs."
"What do you mean by that?" and the first assistant looked up quickly from the survey of his private stores. "Do you mean to hint that I go 'round pryin' into your business?"
"You most generally want to know what's goin' on, an' I've noticed that you contrive to find out."
"Perhaps you didn't do any pryin' when you was so keen to see what I'd been buyin'," Mr. Peters retorted, and in the hope of keeping peace between these two old friends by changing the subject of the conversation, Sidney asked:
"Why wasn't you willing the postmaster should know what had happened at the ledge, sir?"
"Because, Sonny, I wouldn't encourage sich pryin'," Captain Eph replied gravely. "The man ought'er had sense enough to know that the keeper of a first order light don't run 'round tellin' everything he knows. Perhaps if he'd come right out an' asked who you was, I might have told him; but when he beat about the bush, guessin' this and guessin' that, I made up my mind he shouldn't know the least little thing about what was goin' on at the ledge."
"The amount of it is that we go ashore so seldom folks think nothin' less'n an earthquake would fetch us out, an' that's why they're so terribly curious," Mr. Peters said in a thoughtful tone, and Captain Eph asked sharply:
"Is it in your mind that you don't have enough furloughs?"
"Not a bit of it," and Mr. Peters spoke emphatically. "I never go to town that I don't wonder how people can manage to live there, 'cause it's so dreadfully lonesome. Out on the ledge we have somethin' to do, an' can see more or less, 'cept when the fog shuts down, but ashore all they have to look at are the houses, an' I can't figger out why folks will stay there."
Having thus given good evidence that Carys' Ledge was to him an ideal place in which to live, Mr. Peters turned all his attention to the re-stowing of his purchases, and Captain Eph watched him suspiciously, until Sidney asked:
"How long do you suppose it will be, sir, before my father hears where I am?"
"It's all owin' to when a letter can get there, Sonny. You may make up your mind that the Board will send word the quickest way possible, an' we've done the wisest thing by sendin' off the report, for we might wait six months – perhaps more – before we could speak a craft bound to Porto Rico."
"What's the matter with the inspector's telegraphin' to Sonny's father?" Mr. Peters asked suddenly, and the keeper started in surprise as this possibility was suggested.
"Now you can see how thick-headed I am!" he exclaimed. "Here is Sammy, who couldn't be expected to look ahead so far as that, comes up with the very idee. Of course the inspector will telegraph, 'cause I don't s'pose it would cost him anythin', an' the chances are your father'll know the whole story inside of the next eight an' forty hours."
"I hope that may be so," Sidney said half to himself, and Captain Eph cried jealously:
"Are you so anxious as all that to get away from us, Sonny?"
"Indeed I'd be only too glad if I could stay at the light all winter," Sidney said earnestly; "but I can't bear to think that father is feeling very, very bad believing I may be drowned."
"Of course you'd look at it in that light, Sonny, an' it shows your heart is in the right place. I am an old fool for sayin' anything; but the trouble is I've been gettin' it inter my head that you wouldn't go away very soon."
"How can he?" Mr. Peters asked as he gave way to one of those alarming gurgles he sometimes indulged in. "S'posen he knew this very minute where Sonny was, how's he goin' to get at him till his schooner goes to Porto Rico, unloads, takes on another cargo, an' comes back? I don't reckon that voyage can be made in any two or three days!"
"Sammy, you do say the brightest things now an' then, for a man who hasn't got a very big head, that I ever heard of," Captain Eph cried as if a great load had been taken from his mind. "That's the second time you've made me feel mighty good by jumpin' inter the conversation when I didn't s'pose you'd know what to say!"
