James Otis - The Light Keepers - A Story of the United States Light-house Service

"Got the report done as soon as this, Cap'n Eph?" Mr. Peters asked in surprise.

"Of course I have, Sammy, else why would I be wantin' you to read it?"

"Does the boy know what's in it?"

"He was in the kitchen when I read it to Uncle Zenas."

"Well, go ahead. I reckon there ain't any such terrible great rush on this 'ere boat, an' besides, as first assistant of the light, it's my business to know what kind of a tale the keeper is sendin' to the inspector," and Mr. Peters seated himself on the sharp edge of a rock in token that he was prepared to listen; but Captain Eph said gravely before beginning to read:

"We had better have this thing understood at the start, Sammy. When you allowed that it was your business to hear whatever the keeper sent to the inspector, it was all wrong, because if I want to make a report privately, it ain't any concern of my assistants; but in this 'ere case I have made you an' Uncle Zenas a part of the doc'ment, so to speak, an' that's why I'm explainin' matters."

"I allow there's a good chance for an argument there, Cap'n Eph; but seem's how we're kind'er pressed for time, we'll let the matter drop a spell, an' take it up when there's nothin' else on hand, I mean about your havin' the right to make a report without my knowin' what's in it. Go ahead with the readin' an' then I'll explain how I count on fixin' up Sonny's boat."

Sidney, having already heard the statement of facts, had no desire to listen to a second reading; but took advantage of the opportunity to ascertain the extent of the damage done to the boat in which he had spent so many hours of suffering.

The motor was covered by the canvas which the keeper had thrown over it, and after this was removed, the mechanism appeared to be in as good condition as on that day when he and Mr. Sawyer set out from the West Wind to have a look at the wreckage.

Opening one of the lockers, he took therefrom a handful of cotton waste, and while Captain Eph alternately read and explained to his first assistant what he had written, Sidney cleaned the motor as the engineer of the schooner had taught him.

He was still busily engaged in this task when, the report having been read, Mr. Peters exclaimed in a tone of approval:

"Now I call that way up fine! If it don't stir the inspector a bit, he ain't the man I've always took him to be. When do you allow the lad's father ought to get here?"

"Wa'al, I can't say as to that, Sammy, seein's how we haven't had a chance to send the letter ashore yet, and even if that was done, I couldn't figure to any certainty on how long it would take to carry it to Porto Rico. Of course I ought to know all about that, seein's I've fished on the Banks, man and boy, for pretty nigh half my life; but yet I don't. Somehow I'm afraid I ain't up in geography as I ought'er be. Any way, the first part of the work is done, meanin' the makin' of the report, and now it stands us in hand to keep a bright lookout for a craft that can be hailed."

"When this 'ere fog lifts, I reckon we shall see fishermen enough," Mr. Peters replied as if sending a message to the mainland was something which could be readily done, and, apparently dismissing from his mind the report and the possible consequences of making it, he called the keeper's attention once more to the boat in which Sidney had come ashore.

Then it was that he became for the first time aware of what the lad was doing, and with that odd chuckle in which he sometimes indulged when it seemed as if he was choking, Mr. Peters whispered hoarsely in the ear of his superior officer:

"Will you look at that little shaver! I declare if he ain't takin' right hold of that motor as if he had been born in her! He's no common lad, Cap'n Eph, you mark my words!"

"You're right, Sammy, you're right, an' we'd good proof of that when he come in, for it ain't many grown men who could have held the course in the fog as he did. When it shut down so thick, I said to myself, says I, 'This is the last we shall see of the boat,' when lo and behold, in he sails as if it was clear weather. Stavin' the timbers was what you might call an accident, an' didn't come about through carelessness, so I allow that he put her in here as neatly as any sailorman could. But what about fixin' her up?"

Mr. Peters explained in detail how he believed the work might be performed with the limited material at hand, and Sidney listened to the conversation intently, for there was in his mind the belief that once the boat had been repaired, he might set out to find his father without awaiting the tardy movements of the letter.

Mr. Peters was no amateur at mending a boat, as both his mates were ready to testify, and when he had come to the end of his plans, Captain Eph said approvingly:

"You're right, Sammy, you're right, an' I don't see anything to hinder you goin' ahead jest as you've begun. It ain't very likely we could turn her to much account, even if she was in good condition; but we must have her ship-shape before the lad's father arrives, so begin work on her as soon as you please, and I'll lend a hand whenever it's needed."

Having thus received the sanction of his superior officer, Mr. Peters lost no time in beginning the task, and Sidney was forced to cover the motor with the canvas, because it would be impossible for both of them to work on the craft at the same time.

"I reckon you'll be wantin' to take a look at Carys' Ledge before you leave us?" Captain Eph said when the lad was at liberty. "An' seem's how its nigh to low water, you may not have a better chance, although I'm free to admit we haven't got much to show you. If you feel like crawlin' 'round over the rocks, come with me."

Sidney was not particularly eager to make a tour of the ledge, perhaps because it was not very interesting from whatever point you might view it; but it seemed as if he was in duty bound to accept the invitation, and the two set off across the brown, jagged boulders, on which, before the tower was built, so many good vessels had foundered.

When Captain Eph and the boy were at the extreme southern point of the ledge, looking back at the tower, Sidney asked in a tone of wonderment:

"How did they build the light-house on these rocks?"

"Well, I'll allow it was a pretty tough job; but nothing to be compared with what the Board has done in other places. Now I was reading, not a great while ago, in one of the books the inspector sends us, about their building a tower on a rock off the coast of Oregon called Tillamook. Putting one up here wasn't a marker alongside the trouble they had with that, because there wasn't many days in the summer when a full crew couldn't work here."

"And was Tillamook Rock worse than this ledge, sir?" Sidney asked.

"Why bless your heart, lad, Carys' Ledge ain't to be compared with it, 'cording to what I've read. It's just one big stone, so to speak, standin' high out of fifteen fathom of water, an' a full mile from the mainland. As I remember, it's located twenty miles south of the mouth of the Columbia River. It seems, 'cordin' to the printed story, that that 'ere rock was split in two, with a wide crack running east an' west, an' the top of it was about a hundred feet above the level of the sea. Nothin' larger than fifty foot square could be built on it, an' it was a mighty ticklish job for even sailormen to get a footin' there, even in the fairest of fair weather. Why, the foreman of the first crew that went off was drownded when the natives thereabouts allowed that the sea was calm. That put a damper, so to speak, on the work; but the Board was bound to have a light there, an' when they get their minds set on a thing, it's pretty sure to be brought about.

"If I remember rightly, it was sometime in October of 1879, when the steam tender landed four men with drills, hammers, and such like, to say nothing of provisions, fuel, a stove, an' some canvas for them to make a shanty of. There those poor, wretched creeters hung to the rock like starfish, not able to do much of anything more than keep themselves from tumbling off into the water. It was three days before they got five other men an' a small derrick on to that blessed rock, an' for near to two weeks they had nothin' to shelter them from the rain and the spray but that 'ere square of canvas they had carried out."