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LIBRARY
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1 -L CI1,u\D RAPIDS IVHCHIGA
|' ESTABUSHED 1871


1
THE MAY G.QUlGLEY
COLLECTION
OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE


Donated by the
Grand Rap1ds Publw L1brary
The May G Qulgley
Collectwn
of Chlldren s Lzterature
December 2001
The Umverslty of Mlchlgan-Dearborn
Mardlglan Lnbrary


THE BEACH PATROL


BY WILLIAM DRYSDALE.
THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT SERIES.
EACH votUmE 12/no, rutur ILLUSTRATED. PRICE $1.50.
THE TREASURY CLUB. A Story of the Treasury Depart-
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by H. Burgess. $1.50.
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ILLUSTRATED BY Cmnuzs COPELAND.
CLOTH. 12mo. $1.50 ncn.
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Square.
THE FAST MAIL. The Story of a Train Boy.
THE BEACH PATROL. A Story of the Life—S2ing Service.
THE YOUNG SUPERCARGO. A Story of the Merchant
Marine.
Tb: abtrve four -volumes boxed, $6.00.


GRAND RAPIDS Pun: 1c LIBRARY


INSTANTLY THE COSTON LIGHT BLAZED UP LIKE A LIGHTHOUSE


THE
PATROL
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THE BEACH PATROL
A Story of the Life-Saving Service
BY
WILLIAM DRYSDALE
Au!/wr qf “ T he Fast Alail," " T /ze Young Reporter," ¢t1:., ell.
ILLUSTRATED av
CHARLES COPELAND
FIFTH EDITION


BOSTON AND CHICAGO
w. A. WILDE COMPANY


Corvmcur, 1897,
BY W. A. WILDE COMPANY
All r' Ill: ru:r1/ed.

14’
THE BEACH PATROL.


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[J
I LIBRARY.
Q
:3
THE INASN
murna
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX
X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
XIV.
XV.
XVI.
XVII.
XVIII.
XIX
XX.
- _._..._.._~

A
CONTENTS.
——+O°o———
Tom PERRY AND ms AUNT HANNAH
On TRIAL wrrn nu: LIFE-SAv1:Rs .
In Tl-IE HANDS OF THE Insvxccrons . .
Tm: GREAT HARBOR LII-‘E—SAVING STATION
A wREcK oN THE BAR . . . .
Tom swms T0 "um STRANDED YAc1-rr .
A MYSTERIOUS LETTER . . . .
Tm: “BA1mAc0UTA ” STARTS oN A CRUISE
A Lnmn IN P111211. - . . . . .
AUNT HANNAH v’‘1§n's TuE‘SrAT10N .
A Bumrmq C0-rfon STEKMEB . .
NED DARLING or THE “GLE‘NGARRY“
A C1uus'mAs m WAY’s Lnmma .
Tom BEcOMES A LANDED PROPRIETOR .
A Scuoomm IN DISTRESS . . .
CAPTAIN Tom Pmmv m A HURRIcANE .
A TRIP TO A JAMA1cA MOUNTAIN PEAK .
Tum CA1>TA1s’s S1~:cm~:1' D1scovnmsm
Nan DAm.mc’s SALVAGE MONEY .
Tom’s LEGAcY . . . .
6
PAGI
9
24
40
57
74
92
110
127
145
161
179
193
208
224
239
263
268
283
298
310


C.Van$T.'o1l -


ILLUSTRATIONS.
“Instantly the Coston light blazed up like a. light-
house” . . . . . . Frontispiece
“At eight o’cl0ck he was at the wharf by the bridge ” .
“ ‘ Do you see those tall buildings in the city ? ’ ” . .
“‘ This is Ned Darling, from England ’ ” . .
“Tom sprang to the wheel ” . .
s
PAGI
83
48
142
208
259


THE BEACH PATROL. '
CHAPTER I.
TOM PERRY AND ms AUNT HANNAH.
MISS HANNAH PERRY’S cottage on the shore
 of the great pond at Way’s Landing looked
more cosy and romantic under the bright moonlight
than it looked by day, for the moon was more leni-
ent than the sun with the shabby paint and the loose
boards under the eaves. By moonlight the scrawny
brown grass between the house and the water might
almost have been mistaken for a ﬁne green lawn.
Though it was past eight o’clock in the evening
and Miss Hannah was alone, she evidently had no
fear of intruders, for one of the front shades was
drawn up to the middle of the sash; and she sat by
the sitting-room table, in full view of any passer-by,
with an open book in her hand.
But any one who had looked through the window
could have seen in a moment that her mind was not
upon the book. As often as she read a line or two,
 9


IO Tllli BEACH PATROL.
she raised her head and listened; and when the
sound proved to be a false alarm she tapped the ﬂoor
impatiently with her right foot.
“Dear, dear, what can be keeping that boy! ” she
exclaimed, closing the book with a bang, and walk-
ing for the twentieth time to the window. “He’s
never stayed away like this before, NEVER! Not
home after school, not home to his supper, now not
home at bedtime! My, my, if only nothing has
happened to him ! ”
Miss Hannah had more wrinkles in her face than
her ﬁfty odd years warranted, and when she drew
herself up to her full height, the top of her head only
reached Tom’s shoulder. Her scanty iron-gray hair,
always brushed down smooth, and her tight-shut
thin lips and shrewd little gray eyes, gave her an
appearance of great ﬁrmness and determination ; but
on this occasion the gray eyes were moist and needed
frequent wiping.
“I am so afraid something has happened to Tom ! ”
she exclaimed, going back to her chair. But there
was so little that she could do! Before dark she
had gone to the two other houses in the little cluster
of three by the pond, but the neighbors had seen
nothing of Tom. She had gone all the way down
to Herkimer’s store, close by the school, but no one
there had seen him. Then she had gone to the
other stores, across the bridge‘, without hearing a
word about him. The only crumb of comfort came
when she met Sam Bing, one of Tom’s cronies.


TOM PERRY AND HIS AUNT HANNAH. II
“Yes, ma’am,” Sam told her. “Tom was at
school all right. I don’t know where he went after
school.”
If Tom had not been a strapping big boy of six-
teen, well able to take care of himself either on shore
or on the water, there would certainly have been
good cause for Miss Hannah’s alarm. For few small
places give the young folks as many opportunities
for out-door pleasures as Way’s Landing, and there
are endless ways for a young fellow to meet with
accidents if he is careless. First there is the river,
which is both workshop and playground. It is not
a long river, the Great Egg Harbor, hardly more
than twenty miles from the big dam at Way’s Land-
ing down to the Atlantic Ocean; but it is lined with
interesting things. At the lower end of town is the
shipyard, where they build schooners, sometimes as
big as ﬁve or six hundred tons. Those yellow
timbers stand high in the air after the ribs are fas-
tened to the keel, and Way’s Landing boys are fond
of climbing over them. Perhaps Tom might have
had a fall, Miss Hannah thought, and be lying stunned
and bruised on the pine chips. Then above the ship-
yard is the herring ﬁshery, where the men are only,
too willing to let youngsters wade outand help them
drag in the nets. But surely, they would let her
know if Tom had been drowned.
The mule railroad has its share of dangers, too.
That runs up six or eight miles to Weymouth, where
the iron works are, and the little cars come down


I2 THE BEACH PATROL.
/
I
v
9
laden with pig iron. Just before the track reaches
the shipyard, it goes down a steep hill, and boys
often push the empty cars to the top of the hill and
ride down like a hurricane. But she was sure Tom
had not been at that, for she had forbidden it, and he
was always obedient.
She almost forgot these things, however, when she
thought of the old calico mills, and their terrible
brick-vaulted mill-race. Those were the mills for
which the big dam was built, three great brick
structures on the river bank between the bridge and
the dam. For years they had stood abandoned and
empty, and nobody cared how much the children
played in them on rainy days. The mills themselves
were harmless enough, but to think of the mill-race
always made Miss Hannah shudder. It was a brick
tunnel perhaps ﬁve hundred feet long, made to carry
water to the mill-wheels. Above the three or four
feet of water in it there was always an open space of
two or three feet, dark and slimy, and the boys were
fond of swimming through it, and coming out in the
pool below. Tom might be stuck in that dark and
dreadful tunnel! To be sure, it was early in the
season yet for swimming, but she could not be sure.
Then there was the great pond, a mile or more
long, and nearly as wide. Poor Tom might be lying
drowned on the bottom of the great pond! At the
thought of it the handkerchief was brought into use
again, and MissHannah walked once more to the
window.
1|
An


TOM PERRY AND HIS AUNT HANNAH I3
“ I’m afraid I was a little sharp to Tom at dinner
time,” she moaned. “And he’s such a good boy,
too! Oh, I never can say a cross word to Tom
again!”
Miss Hannah would have felt relieved, though
surprised, if she had known that Tom was at that
moment standing shipwrecked on a desert island,
hardly half a mile from the house, waiting for the‘
tide to fall so that he could get home.
It was a perfectly innocent scrape that he had got
into, though an unpleasant one, particularly when he
reﬂected how Aunt Hannah would be worrying about
him.
That day was one of the “high tide days,” that
come three or four together every spring, when the
tide rises higher than at any other time of the year,
and the water scurries up stream like a ﬂood, and
rushes out to sea again even faster than it came up.
Boats are carried away in such tides, and ﬁshermen
lose their seines, and schooners coming up the river
are warped into sheltered bays, and anchored. Tom
always liked to see the river in one of these ﬂood
tides, and he hurried through dinner to have time to
run down to the shipyard before the one o’clock bell
rang. My! "how everything was aﬂoat along shore!
What was dry land yesterday was now part of the
river bed. Cords of chips were ﬂoating about, and
big timbers were ‘secured with ropes, and the men
had to wade to get to their little tool house.
It was worth seeing, a sightlike that. He had
F.
J


I4 THE BEACH PATROL.
only a few minutes to spare, but instead of going
back to the street he would follow the bank up to
the herring ﬁshery, to see whether his friends the
ﬁshermen had lost any seines. He had not gone far
before he came upon a ﬂat-bottomed boat, untied,
and washing up against the shore.
“ That looks very much like Judge Naylor’s boat,”
he said to himself, as he drew the bow on shore as
far as he could to secure it. “ I’m pretty sure it is.
Must have broken away, I suppose. If I see the
Judge, I’ll tell him about it.”
Instead of going on to the ﬁshery he turned off
toward the street, for the Judge lived nearly oppo-
site the schoolhouse, and Tom was anxious to do him
a favor. The Judge was just coming out of his gate
as Tom drew up.
“ Good morning, Judge,” he said; “ has your boat
got away, sir ? ”
“Yes, I guess she’s a goner, Tom,” the Judge
answered; “she broke her rope some time this
morning.”
“I think I know where she is, sir,” Tom went
on. “I found either yours or one just like it adrift
a few minutes ago, down below the ﬁshery. I drew
her up a little, and I can bring her back to your
landing after school if you like, sir.”
“ Did you, though!” the Judge exclaimed. “Well,
I’m glad to hear that, for I don’t want to lose her.
There’s a quarter waiting for you if you bring her
back to my landing and tie her up tight.”


TOIII PERRY AND HIS AUNT HANNAH. IS
That was the reason of Toin’s mysterious dis-
appearance after school. Quarters are not so plenty
with Way’s Landing boys. The boat was his own
discovery; but if he took a friend along he would
have to divide the "reward with him; and he hap-
pened to have a particular use for the quarter.
In no time at all he was down on the river bank
after school, and had the boat in the water again.
There were no oars in the boat, only a short pole,
but Tom had great conﬁdence in his skill as a boat-
man. He set one end of the pole against the shore,
and with a heavy shove sent his boat ﬂying out into
the stream.
When he dipped the pole into the water the next
moment, intending to strike bottom and so pole the
boat up stream, he found that there was no bottom
to strike—at least not with a short pole like that.
The current had whirled him out into the deep chan-
nel, and he was entirely at its mercy, drifting down
stream at a tremendous rate.
“ Now I’m a goner! ” he said to himself, after one
or two more vain eﬁorts to strike bottom. “This
tide will carry me down to the bay in about three or
four hours. Then away I go out to the sea to be ship-
wrecked and droWned.”
But as he turned around and sat down on the
stern seat, the only seat in the boat, he did not seem
to be as much alarmed as the words implied, for he
was laughing at his helpless situation.
“ At least that’s the way such things turn out in


I6 THE BEACH PATROL.
the stories I have read,” he went on. “But I’m
afraid there is no such good luck for me as to have
a little adventure. Those fellows in the stories
must be poor sailors, or they’d know that a boat is
bound to fetch up at some turn in the river. I’ll
drift into shallow water presently, and then I’ll be
all right.”
He was not in the least danger, as he knew very
well, for if it came to the worst he had only to jump
overboard and swim ashore; but he was too good a
sailor to desert his boat while she ﬂoated, and he had
not forgotten that there was a quarter ready for him
when he took her to her wharf.
Just as he expected, the current took him in near
shore at the ﬁrst sharp bend, a little below the ship-
yard, where the water was shallow enough to allow
the pole to touch bottom. He looked up and down
the shore for a longer pole, but seeing none, he deter-
mined to go up stream with the one he had. By
keeping well inside of the channel and close to shore,
his progress up stream was sure enough, but it was
very slow. He hardly realized how long it was tak-
ing him till he was up past the shipyard again and
above the ﬁshery, when he noticed that the sun had
set and that darkness was coming.
A little above the ﬁshery lay Teaberry Island, and
above the island the river became much narrower
and deeper. He knew that he would have hard
work in that swifter current; but when he reached
Judge Naylor’s wharf he would be almost home.


TOM PERRY AND HIS AUNT HANNAH. I7
I
Along the coast of Teaberry Island he helped himself
by taking hold of the tall bushes that lined the
shore; and he was near the upper end of the island,
working with his pole again, when —
“ Snap! ” went the pole, broken short off, leaving
two or three feet of the end in his hands; and he
would have drifted down stream again if he had not
grabbed at the bushes, and caught one of them.
“Now I am in forit!” he exclaimed; and this
time he was not joking with himself, for he knew
that he was caught in a trap. “The very worst
place it could have happened. This is Teaberry
Island, and in such a tide there must be three or
four feet of water on the Causeway. I’m stuck here
till the tide goes down, and Aunt Hannah will be
worried to death about me.”
It was like Tom to think ﬁrst of all of Aunt Han-
nah, for he was very fond of her; and he was quite
right in his estimate of the situation. He could not
escape from Teaberry Island till the‘ tide went down.
He drew the boat up as far as he could and fastened
her securely with a rope he had brought along, and
climbed up to the higher and dryer land.
From most islands Tom could have managed to
escape somehow; but he knew Teaberry Island too
well to hope for release before the tide fell. Back
from the main street at one point the land falls away
into a black, bush-grown swamp several hundred
yards wide, a sea of black mud and thick bushes at
low tide, and a pond of muddy water when the tide


18 THE 55.4011 PATROL.
is high. Beyond this swamp, and separating it from
the river, is Teaberry Island, a. tract of four or ﬁve
acres of dry land covered with pine trees, and in
summer fragrant with the odor of the berries from
which it takes its name, the bright red little berries
that in most places are called wintergreens.
Many years ago a causeway was built across the
swamp to the island; a causeway of logs laid side
by side, like a corduroy road. But it was never
repaired, and gradually the logs sank into the mud
till they were low enough to be covered at every
high tide, and between them were mud holes in
which one could sink to the waist. When the tide
was out, the causeway was safe enough for the boys
and even the girls to cross to the island upon; but
at high tide it was very dangerous; and in one of
the great spring tides, Tom knew better than to
make the attempt. There was nothing for him to
do but wait for the tide to fall.
He had no matches to build a ﬁre, and the spring
evening was cold; but if he felt any alarm when
darkness came on he was wise enough to say nothing
about it afterward; he was certainly whistling cheer-
fully when he approached Aunt Hannah’s house
between eight and nine o’clock that evening, the tide
by that time being well out. '
Miss Hannah was still in the sitting-room, where
the shade was up, walking anxiously up and down
the ﬂoor. The ﬁrst sound of Tom’s cheery whistle
sent a thrill to her heart, and she almost ﬂew to the


TOM PERRY AND HIS AUNT HANNAH. I9
window. There, sure enough, was her dear Tom
hurrying down the road, looking so brave ‘and hand-
some in the moonlight ! She had fought hard against
the tears, but now she let them come in a ﬂood of
joy.
However, the emotions are uncertain things—
particularly Aunt Hannah’s emotions. The way the
wind shifts is nothing to the way she can change
from gay to grave, from loving to severe; and when
she is in one of her severe moods it is best to keep a
loose sheet and let everything run before the wind.
Dear Tom lost or stolen, perhaps drowned in the
mill-race, perhaps mangled on the mule railroad or
in the shipyard, was one thing; but Tom all safe
and sound, Tom coming whistling up the road after
keeping her in misery for hours, was quite another.
The tears of joy suddenly dried up, and by the time
that Tom opened the door she was apparently read-
ing her book calmly.
“So!” she said very mildly, when Tom stepped
in. “You concluded to come home, did you? I
hope you have been enjoying yourself.”
That mild tone was ominous, as Tom knew from
long experience ; it was the gentle puff of wind that
comes a. moment before the terrible sweep of the
hurricane.
“Why, Aunt Hannah, I — ” he tried to begin; but
it was only a matter of form, for he knew that he
would not be allowed to explain till the storm was
over. ' 


20 THE BEA Cl! PA TROL.
“Ch, you ungrateful boy!” she interrupted, ex-
tending her right arm and pointing her foreﬁnger
straight at Tom’s face. “You spoiled wilful boy!
To keep me in suspense here till midnight while you
go traipsin’ about the country getting yourself into
all sorts of mischief. Don’t ‘ Aunt Hannah’ me, sir.
And just look at yourself ! "
She had worked her excitement to too high a pitch
to sit still, and she sprang up and seized Tom by the
arm and turned him this way and that so that she
could admire him on all sides.
- “ Just look at yourself ! ” she repeated. “ Me sitting
here, and wearing the skin off my bones over your
clothes, and then you going and getting yourself
covered with mud from your heels to your waist!
And ruining my ﬂoor that I scrubbed this very blessed
morning! Oh, you wicked boy! And makin’ me
trudge up and down the streets till I was ready to
drop, trying to ﬁnd you. Oh, I’ve a notion to—”
and she gave him as vicious a shake as such a little
body could give a great big boy like Tom.
“But I couldn’t get home, Aunt Hannah,” he
began again. “ I was on Teaberry— ”
“ Don’t tell me ! ’’ she cried, ‘resuming her walk up
and down the room and squeezing one hand with the
other, as she always did when excited. “Couldn’t
get home, indeed! But you got home when it was
time for you to sneak into the nice soft bed I’ve
made for you. You get home fast enough when you
want anything to eat. Couldn’t get home! When


T0!!! PERRY AND HIS AUNT HANNAH. 21
you’re in need of anything you can get home. Oh,
dear, dear, dear, what have I done that I should have
such trials in my old age? What did I ever have a
brother for to go oﬁ and die and leave me his son to
grow up into a great, idle, worthless boy? That I’ve
got to work my ﬁngers off for, and stint myself for
till I hardly have decent clothes on my back! And
feed the great lazy thing, though I often go hungry
myself! A great, overgrown baby, to go wasting his
time on the river instead of trying to earn something
for his poor old aunt. Dear, dear, what troubles I dc}
have!
“Get out of my sight!” she exclaimed, starting
toward Tom as if she intended to take hold of him
again. “ Off to bed with you! Not a bite of supper
do you have this blessed night. If it wasn’t for me
you’d go many a night without your supper. Off
with you ! ”
Tom obeyed readily, glad for the chance to escape.
To have stopped to say good night would only have
been to invite a fresh outbreak. He had seen his
aunt in such tantrums so often before that he was
used to them. She loved him with her whole heart,
he knew ; and these were ‘only unfortunate outbreaks
of temper.
He was soon in bed, but somehow he could not
get to sleep. Some of Aunt Hannah’s words kept
coming back to him, in spite of all he could do.
“ ‘A great, idle, worthless boy! ’ ” he repeated
again and again. “I don’t think she ought to call


22 TIIE B£.~l(‘Il PATROL.
me that, because it's her own doing that I go to
school instead of going to work. And then work-
ing her ﬁngers off, and stinting herself! She never
told me that before. I wonder whether it’s really so,
or whether she only said it because she was mad?
Aunt Hannah does work too hard, that’s sure; but I
always thought she had plenty. If she hasn’t, then
what she said about me is true enough. I’ve no busi-
ness going to school any longer if I ought to be at
work. I’m big enough, and I’m sure I’m anxious
enough to do something.”
He thought this over a dozen times, and might
have lain awake half the night, if he had not pres-
ently heard a soft footstep outside the door.
“ Tom ! ” a voice called; his aunt’s voice, of course.
Then the door opened, and she put in her head.
“Tom, are you asleep yet?” she asked; and he
knew by the tone that the storm was over.
“ No, I haven’t got to sleep yet, Aunty,” he re-
plied. “Too much excited over my shipwreck, I
guess.”
“ Poor boy!” she exclaimed, and walked up to the
bed, and brushed the hair back from Tom’s forehead.
“I was afraid you wouldn’t sleep after having no
supper. And I was so cross to my boy, too! But
you know I never mean anything I say when I’m
angry. I want you to get up and slip on some
clothes, Tom, for I’ve made a nice hot cup of tea for
you, and boiled some eggs, and you must come and
eat something. I don’t want tolstarve my poor boy.”


TOM PERRY AND HIS AUNT HANNAH. 23
“Now my old aunty’s come back!” Tom cried.
“ I knew she wouldn’t be gone long.”
Long after the tea and eggs had disappeared, Tom
and Aunt Hannah sat by the sitting-room ﬁre, and
toward the close of the talk she pulled the big and
heavy Tom down into her little lap. It was evident
that something she had said in her anger was still
worrying her.
“Now remember, Tom,” she repeated, “you’re
never to pay any attention to anything I say in one
of those ﬁts of passion. I say such foolish things
sometimes. Didn’t I talk about our being poor, and
my having to work so hard? I thought so. Now
what a foolish thing that was to say! You know I
have a little income anyhow, and we have this house
to live in, and I’m so fond of sewing that I don’t
mind making dresses at all. We’re not a bit poor,
Tom; and you know I love my boy better than any-
thing else in this World.”
“ Of course you do, little Aunty! ” Tom exclaimed,
putting his arm around her neck. The sleeve was
wet with Miss Hannah’s tears, and Tom’s eyes were
opened. “And look how big and strong your boy
is! It’s well I was shipwrecked to~day, for it’s
taught me that I am not a little boy any more.”
I


CHAPTER II.
on TRIAL wITH THE urn-savnns.
IT was a new experience for Tom to lie awake and
think after he went to bed; generally he was so
tired that he dropped oﬁ to sleep the minute his head
touched the pillow. But the day’s events had given
him something to think about, and sleep would not
come for a long time. He thought of many things
that had never occurred to him before. Though he
did not know it at the time, he went through a
mental process that night that most boys have to go
through, but never more than once. Some boys can
remember, long after they cease to be boys, almost
the precise day when they ﬁrst began to have a feel-
ing of responsibility. Up to that time life was a
jolly round of sports and study, with perhaps a few
errands and a little work, but with no cares, no fear
that those happy days would ever come to an end.
Then something happened, perhaps some triﬂing
thing, that set them to thinking, and they suddenly
realized that father and mother had to toil to keep
that comfortable home; that all the little troubles
were generously hidden from the children, and that
14


ON TRIAL WITH THE LIFE-SA VERS. 25
their turn must come to help bear the burdens.
When that feeling comes to a boy, it is a sign of
approaching manhood.
And that was exactly the state of Tom’s mind on
the night after his shipwreck on Teaberry Island.
A few words spoken in anger had opened his eyes.
There was always a dollar in the purse when it was
needed, but he had never considered before how
Aunt Hannah had to work and pinch to keep it
there.
“I ought to be very grateful to that old pole,”
he said to himself. “If the pole hadn’t broken, I
shouldn’t have been kept on the island. If I had
not been kept there, Aunt Hannah would not have
been angry at me. -And if she had not been very
angry, she never would have said a word about hav-
ing to work and worry to take care of me. Then
she was so provoked at herself afterwards because
she had said it! But of course the more she tried to
explain it away, the plainer it made everything.
“I ought to have seen these things before,” he
went on, “if I had only known enough. Just look
how the house is half tumbling down. And Aunt
Hannah so neat about everything! if she had money
to spare, she wouldn’t allow that. And sewing her
eyes out every day for other people! That don’t
look like plenty of money. And all this for me, so
that I can be kept at school, and wear as good clothes
as any of the boys, and be fed upon good things.
But we’ll soon put a stop to that. If I’m as big as


26 YHE 55,4011 PATROL.
I think myself, I can do some pretty good days’
work.”
When he sprang out of bed next morning he was
in a hurry to get his clothes on, for he had settled
upon several things that he wanted to do before
school. He was sorry to see that the breakfast was
a little better than usual, as that showed him that
Aunt Hannah was still worried because she had been
so cross to him. But he hurried through it.
“What are you in such a hurry for, Tom?” she
asked. “ It is hardly seven o’clock yet.” '
“I have a lot of things to do before school,” he
answered. “ I want to take the Judge’s boat up to
his dock, so as to get my quarter. And then I want
to run down to the shipyard a minute.” -
“ To the shipyard!” Miss Hannah exclaimed;
“ what are you going to the shipyard for?”
Tom looked confused at this question, and hesitated
as he replied:
“Why, I hear they’re going to lay the keel for a
new schooner in a few days; one of the biggest
schooners ever built in Way’s Landing, Aunty.”
“Well, what have you got to do with that? ” Miss
Hannah asked.
“ Why, I thought—I didn’t know but—” Tom
stammered, “ but maybe I could get something to do
on her. I want to ﬁnd something to do.”
Now it was Aunt Hannah who looked confused
and ﬂushed a little in the face.
“ Now, Tom Perry,” she exclaimed, stepping over


ON TRIAL WITH THE LIFE-SA VERS. 27
and laying her hand on his shoulder, “you’ll not do
anything of the kind. I know what put that in your
head; just because I said some foolish things last
night when I was angry and didn’t know what I was
saying. You know that was all nonsense, Tom, and
you mustn’t think anything more about it.”
“I don’t, Aunt Hannah,” Tom answered, putting
his arm around her waist. “But how can I help
seeing what a big strong fellow I am? And now
that I have begun to think about it, I am ashamed
of myself for not being at work. I have been at
school long enough, and I want to be doing some-
thing. There may be a chance for me on the new
schooner.”
Miss Hannah tried her best to talk him out of his
new resolution; but when she saw that he had really
made up his mind she did not feel sure that she
ought to oppose him further.
“What is the use of having an old aunty, Tom,”
she asked, “ if she can’t take care of you ? ”
“What is the use of having a big nephew if he
can’t take care of his old aunty?” Tom promptly
retorted ; and a big spring tide rose in Miss Hannah’s
eyes faster than she could keep it back with her
handkerchief.
“Well, Tom,” she said, after a little pause, “ I don’t
want to hinder you if you think you ought to be
making a little money for yourself—only for your-
self, mind! But before you do this I think you
ought to know of something that I have never told


28 7 ‘HE BEA Cl] PA Tl\‘0L.
you about. I have a little package for you from
your father.”
From his father! No wonder Tom started and
opened his eyes very wide; for this sounded as if
his father had just sent him something; and he
knew very well that his father had been dead for
twelve years.
Many a time Aunt Hannah had taken him in her
lap and told him about the mother he had no recol-
lection of, because she died before he was a week old;
and of his father, Miss Hannah’s brother, who died
when Tom was four. He had only a shadowy idea
of his father’s face; but he knew how the brother
and sister had lived there together after his mother’s
death; and how his father, leaving the little Tom
with the loving aunt, who had been his second
mother-, had gone to the Far West in search of a
fortune, but had found only a distant and lonely
grave.
“ From my father! ” Tom exclaimed.
Instead of answering, Miss Hannah got up and
went into her sleeping-room, where Tom heard her
unlock and open her old-fashioned trunk. A moment
later she returned with the packet in her hand—a
long and broad yellow envelope, swelled out by its
contents, with an address on one side, and three big
wax seals on the other.
“ This is your legacy, Tom,” she said, putting the
packet in his hands. “ At least, it is the only thing
your father left you. He sent it to me a few days


ON TRIAL WITH 7‘HE LIFE-SA VERS. 29
before his death, when he knew that there was no
chance of recovery.”
It gave Tom a peculiar feeling to take the envelope
that had been prepared for him by the father who,
with death staring him in the face, was still thinking
of his boy.
“ Read the address,” Aunt Hannah went on, “ and
then you must act as you think best.”
In his surprise Tom had forgotten to read what
was written upon the envelope; but he looked at it
now, and saw the words, written in a large ﬂowing
hand, with many ﬂourishes,
“ Fon LITTLE Tom.
“ To be opened on his twenty-ﬁrst birthday — and not
before.”
“My twenty-ﬁrst birthday! ” he exclaimed. “Why,
that is nearly ﬁve years oﬁ yet, and, of course, we
cannot open it till that time comes.”
“That is a matter that I want you to decide for
yourself, Tom,” his aunt answered. “ There is noth-
ing to prevent your opening it at once, if you think
best. Indeed, I should rather have you open it now,
than let you go on for ﬁve years believing that you
will inherit a lot of money when you are twenty-one,
for you would most likely be disappointed. Your
father always liked to do things diﬂerently from
other people, and that, I suppose, is why he scaled up
this packet. He was interested in mining in the


30 THE BEA Cl] PA TROL.
West, but he gave me to understand that his vent-
ures had been unsuccessful.”
“Oh, I’ll not set myself up for the heir to a big
estate, Aunt Hannah!” Tom laughed, “and sit
around for ﬁve years, waiting for money that may
not be there. You needn’t be afraid of that. But I
wouldn’t think of opening the packet till the proper
time comes. My father knew what he was about
when he wrote that on the envelope, you may be
sure, and we must follow his directions.”
“Very well, my boy,” Aunt Hannah replied, evi-
dently pleased at Tom’s decision. “I thought it
was only right to show it to you, and let you judge
for yourself.”
Tom was full of affairs as he hurried down to the
Causeway leading to Teaberry Island. First he
would take the J udge’s boat up to her wharf and so
earn his quarter. Then he would run down to the
shipyard, and see the foreman. Perhaps he might
have a situation engaged by the time the school bell
rang! Nothing like striking while the iron is hot,
he thought, forgetting that sometimes the iron is
out of reach and cannot be struck without a heap of
climbing. ’ '
When he reached Herkimer’s store he went in and
borrowed a long pole that he knew always stood
leaning against the shed, and in a minute more he
was on the edge of the bluﬁ that overlooked the
swamp.
“ Oh, pshaw ! ” he cried, as soon as he set eyes on


ON TRIAL WITH THE LIFE-SAVERS. 3|
the Causeway. The tide had come up again, and
the water was sweeping over it like a mill-race.
“ I thought the tide would be out by this time; but
there’s no depending on these spring tides. Now I
can’t get at the boat till dinner time.”
Sorrowfully he took the pole back to its old place,
and set out briskly for the shipyard. There the
men had been at work for more than an hour; some
high up on the unpainted deck of the vessel they
were building, others sitting on scaffolds, driving
oakum into the seams between the planks that cov-
ered the sides. Fortunately the foreman was in the
tool house sharpening a chisel, so Tom did not have
to climb.
“Good morning, Mr. Parks,” he began, for he
knew the foreman very well. “I came to see
whether I could get a job with you on the new
schooner. I want to get something to do.”
“You!” Mr. Parks exclaimed, looking at him
with a twinkle’ in his eye. “Well now, I’d hate to
go to sea in a ship that you’d helped build. Why,
you don’t know any more about ship carpentering
than about trigonometry. I don’t suppose you can
even square the circle yet.”
“No, sir,” Tom answered, not to be caught in
that little trap about squaring the circle; “I can’t
square the circle yet, but I am pretty handy with
tools. I can learn to do the work ; and I suppose
your men all had to learn at ﬁrst.”
“ Yes, I guess you could learn; that’s a fact,” Mr.


ON TRIAL WITH THE LIFE-SAVERS. 33
his ﬁst down on the desk with a bang that attracted
everybody’s attention.
“Thomas!” said the teacher, looking up in sur-
prise; and Tom blushed and sat up very straight and
quiet. But that did not prevent him from continuing
his mental conversation with himself.
“ I’m not going to let such a notion creep into my
head,” he declared. “ Even if I had plenty of money,
it would be a foolish thing to depend upon that and
not go to work. But when I have nothing but a
yellow envelope with three seals, that can’t be opened
for nearly ﬁve years yet, why — why— it would be
the most foolish thing in the world to wait for that
in the hope of getting something out of it.
“Anyhow,” he continued, “ I can attend to the
Judge’s boat at noon, for the tide can’t always be
high; and my notion is that anybody who wants
work can always ﬁnd it, if he keeps on looking.”
At dinner time the tide was so low that he crossed
the Causeway to Teaberry Island without diﬂiculty,
and taking the boat up to her little wharf was only
carrying himself so much nearer home.
“ Well, are you going to help build that new
schooner ? ” Aunt Hannah asked, as soon as he
entered the house; and Tom thought from her tone
that she anticipated a failure.
“ She’s not going to be built,” he answered, “so of
course I couldn’t get any work on her. But that’s no
sign that I can’t get work somewhere else. I’ve started
to look for a job now, and I’m going to ﬁnd one.”


34 TH£ BEACH PATROL.
This gave Aunt Hannah a chance to assure Tom
again that there was no necessity for his doing any-
thing till he was older, and to repeat all the arguments
she had used before; but he saw lying about the room
the sewing she had been busy with all morning, and
though he did not say much, he did not waver in his
resolution.
When school was over for the afternoon he stepped
over to Judge Naylor’s house to tell him of the safety
of his boat and to receive his pay, and the Judge
himself opened the door.
“The boat is fast to her wharf, sir, and all in
good order,” he said. “I got her up to Teaberry
Island, last night, and took her to your wharf at
noon to-day.”
“I am glad you did, Tom,” the Judge answered.
“I was sure she would be all right when you took her
in charge. Those high spring tides do us a good
deal of damage; but I can hardly complain this time
as I have got off so cheaply.” And he put his hand
in his pocket and drew out some coins and handed
Tom a twenty-ﬁve cent piece.
“ Thank you, sir,” Tom said as he dropped the
money into his pocket, whereit must have felt a little
lonesome, having some keys and a jack-knife but no
other coins to jingle against. “ Any time you want
her cleaned or painted or anything, I’ll be glad to do
it for you, sir. I am looking for something to do.”
He put on his hat again as he spoke, and was
about to turn and go down the steps, but he paused


ON TRIAL IVITH THE LIFE-SAVERS. 35
because the Judge was looking at him as if something
more had occu-rred to him that he wanted to say.
“ You are growing to be quite a big boy, Tom,”
the Judge said, stepping out upon the porch. “ How
old are you?”
“Sixteen, sir,” Tom answered. “Seventeen next
winter.”
“Yes, yes,” the Judge went on slowly, as though
trying to make up his mind about something. “Yes,
yes. And they tell me you are a great hand about
the river—a good boatman and ﬁsherman, ﬁrst-rate
swimmer, and something of a sailor.”
“Not so much of a sailor, sir,” Tom interrupted,
wondering what all this could mean. “ I have made
a few voyages down the bay and back. But I have
always been around the water so much that I feel
quite at home on it.”
“Yes, yes,” the Judge continued. “ And you are
looking for something to do, are you? Quite right,
too. You have too much spirit to let Aunt Hannah
keep working for you all her life. H’m—h’m.”
It was embarrassing for Tom to stand there with
his hat in his hand and wait, but he did not know
what to say, and the Judge seemed in no hurry to
go on. After a little pause, however, he continued:
“ Maybe it was a special Providence that brought
you to my door just at this moment, Tom; I don’t
know. But when you knocked, an old friend of
mine who is in the parlor was just telling me how
he had spent three days in Way’s Landing trying to


36 T///-: BEACH PATROL. '
get a man to work for him, without ﬁnding any-
body.”
“I’m his man, sir!” Tom exclaimed, “if he’ll
have me.”
“But this is peculiar work, Tom,” the Judge went
on, “and often dangerous work. My friend inside
is Captain Powers, the keeper of the Great Harbor
Life-Saving Station. One of his men has left, and
he is looking for another to take his place in the
Life-Saving Crew. It is hard to get good men who
are willing to spend the whole winter on the beach,
entirely away from everything, and liable to be
called into danger at any minute.”
“I shouldn’t stop for that, sir!” Tom declared,
“if I could get the job.” The very idea of belong-
ing to a Life-Saving Crew sent the blood jumping
through his veins.
“The Captain may think you are too young for
such work,” the Judge said, smiling at Tom’s enthu-
siasm. “But come in, and he can decide for
himself.”
Tom followed the Judge into the parlor, and the
manner of his introduction to the Captain did not
relieve his embarrassment in the least.
“ I wonder whether I haven’t found you the man
you’re looking for, Powers?” the Judge began.
“Here is a youngster who would like to be a young
Life-Saver, and I think he would make you a good
one. This is Master Tom Perry, Captain Powers.”
“It’s a name I used to know very well,” the


ON TRIAL WITH THE LIFE-SA VERS. 37
Captain replied, “when you and I were younger.
Many a foot race and swimming race, and wrestling
match I’ve had with poor Tom Perry, when we were
all at school together. He was a good one, Tom
was.”
“Yes; and this is Tom’s son,” the Judge
explained. -
“ Tom’s son! ” the Captain cried; “ this great big
fellow Tom Perry’s son! Why, I thought Tom’s
boy was a little baby. But to be sure that was
twelve or ﬁfteen years ago that I saw the shaver
last. How do you do, young Tom Perry ? ”
Tom was holding out his hand, but instead of tak-
ing it the Captain laid hold of his arm above the
elbow, and dug his ﬁngers into the muscles.
“That’s a good arm!” the Captain exclaimed.
“Shake hands, young Tom Perry. But look out!
I’m a warm-hearted sort of a man, and I like a hearty
shake. I’m going to squeeze.”
“ I like that kind of a shake, sir,” Tom laughed,
understanding that the Captain meant to test the
strength of his grip. It was a favorite amusement
among the boys, and few of them could make him
beg for mercy.
They put their hands together, and Tom in his
enthusiasm began to exert all his strength from the
start. He had a good grip, and for a few moments
it seemed as if he really might outsqueeze the
Captain. But when the Life-Saver shut his hand in
earnest, the great paw closed down like a vise, and


38 THE BEACH PATROL.
Tom could almost feel himself turning pale under
the pain. There was no doubt about his hearing the
knuckle bones crunch together; but he only gritted
his teeth, for he had determined not to cry out, no
matter how much it hurt.
“You’ve got good pluck, youngster,” the Captain
declared, relaxing his hold; “good pluck, and a fairly
good grip. How old are you ? ”
“Going on seventeen, sir,” Tom answered.
“ He is a good deal of a man for his age, Powers,”
the Judge interrupted. “I have known him all his
life, and I can recommend him to you. I don’t
think anything could induce him to tell a lie, and I
am sure he would rather cut oﬁ a hand than do any-
thing dishonest. He is the sort of fellow you can
depend upon. When he tells you anything, you
don’t need to investigate it.”
Tom turned aside at this to ﬁnd a place for his hat
on the table. The pain of the Captain’s squeeze had
failed to produce a tear, but the Judge’s praise was
such a surprise that he was afraid the Captain might
see his lip quiver. He had no idea before that the
Judge or any of his townsmen held so high an
opinion of him.
“-That’s the kind of fellows we like to have in the
service,” the Captain said. And he went on to ask
Tom a hundred questions about himself and his sur-
roundings. What experience had he had in the
surf? Was he a good swimmer? Could he handle a
sailboat in heavy weather? Would his family con-


ON TRIAL WITII THE LIFE-SA VERS. 39
sent to his going? Would he stick to the work and
continue to be a member of the crew? Was his
health generally good?
“ You must remember,” the Captain went on, after
Tom had answered all his questions satisfactorily, “ it’s
a lonely job, and often a man has to take his life
into his hands.”
“ I am anxious to try it, sir,” Tom replied.
“ You are very young for such work,” the Captain
continued ; “but you are big and strong, and the
Judge recommends you so highly that I can give you
a short trial, at any rate. Our season is from the
middle of August till the ﬁrst of June, so this year’s
‘work is nearly over; but I can take you on trial
from now till the ﬁrst of June, provided you can be
ready to go down to the station with me to-morrow.
I have my boat here.”
With ﬂushed cheeks, for he was almost a Life-
Saver already, Tom promised to be on hand promptly,
provided his aunt gave her consent ; but in the
excitement of the moment he forgot to ask what pay
he would receive. Such a matter was not likely to
be overlooked, however, by an experienced lawyer
like the Judge; and before the talk was ﬁnished he
asked,— - '
“ What pay do the surfmen get, Powers?”
“Sixty dollars a month,” the Captain answered,
“for nine months in the year.”


CHAPTER III.
m THE nuns or THE msrzcrons.
THE battle was only half fought, as Tom well
knew, when he got a chance to become a young
Life-Saver on trial. He had Aunt Hannah to deal
with next. He had never been away from her longer
than two or three days at a time, when he made
little voyages down the bay, and she might object to
his leaving home.
“Anyhow,” he said to himself, “she won’t stop
me because there may be a little danger in the job.
She is too well used to having me about the water to
think a surfman’s work too dangerous for me.”
He was right about that. Way’s Landing folks are
too familiar with the perils of the sea to be much
afraid of them. Half the men of the place make a
living in some way or other from the water. Miss
Hannah’s father was a captain in his time, and com-
manded a little coasting schooner. Tom’s father,
too, had made a few voyages before the mast. Way’s
Landing boys can sail a skiff in rough water by the
time that inland boys are wearing their ﬁrst boots.
Familiarity breeds contempt of any particular form
. 40


IN THE HANDS OF T HE INSPECTORS. 41
of danger, as well as of other things. In the mining
regions mothers are not afraid to have their boys
work in the dangerous mines. In powder-mill towns
boys are set to work in the mills as soon as the bosses
will have them. Niagara Falls mothers are not for-
ever telling their children to keep away from the cliffs.
Just how to break the news to his aunt, how to
make sure of gaining her consent, he could not quite
make up his mind about. But that problem worked
itself out, as such things generally do. He had been
in the house for some minutes, still trying to make
up his mind how to begin, when Miss Hannah said:
“Well, what is it, Tom? I see you have some-
thing to think about, and you may as well tell me
ﬁrst as last.”
“Why, I’ve found something to do, Aunty,” he
replied. “ I’ve got a job with the Great Harbor Life-
Saving Crew.”
“ Life-Saving Crew ! ” Miss Hannah exclaimed,
throwing up her hands. “ You! Why, child, are you
crazy? What can a boy like you do in a Life-Saving
Crew ? ”
“Why, save lives, I suppose. That seems to be
the object'of the service.” Tom could not resist the
temptation to joke a little, in the hope of setting his
aunt to laughing. “ I’m to be a surfman. At least,
they are willing to give me a trial, to see whether
I’ll do. And the pay is sixty dollars a month, Aunt
Hannah, for nine months a year. Think of that! ”
“ Yes, of course I think of that!” she cried; and


42 THE 55.40/1 m mos.
Tom saw with dismay that she was growing excited.
“ And you’d better think of that, too. Sixty dollars
a month, indeed, for a whipper-snapper like you,
when the place is full of grown men who would like
such a job. Why, most any man in Way’s Landing
would be glad of such a place; and do you think
they’d let a boy like you have it? You must be
losing your senses! ”  
“ Captain Powers says it’s so lonesome on the beach
in winter that he has hard work to get men to stay,”
Tom argued; and he went on and told her of his
visit to Judge Naylor’s. “ I don’t care how lonesome
it is. That will suit me ﬁrst rate.”
But Miss Hannah was far better at an argument
than Tom, andthings began to look rather blue for
him, when unexpected help arrived. Judge Naylor
knew pretty well how an aunt would oppose her boy’s
going away for such work, and as he felt an interest
in Tom, he followed him up in a few minutes to help
him win his case.
The Judge did not begin by urging Miss Hannah
to let Tom accept the place. Catch a shrewd old
lawyer doing such a foolish thing as that! He knew
a much better way.  "
“ Good evening, Miss Perry,” he said; “ I’ve come
to congratulate you and Tom. It’s not often such
a stroke of good fortune hits any of us here in Way’s
Landing. I’m proud to think that had something
to do with getting Tom such a good start in life, too.
It is a splendid opening for a young man, even if it


IN THE HANDS OF THE INSPECTORS. 43
-3'
is a little lonesome down there. Tom is an excellent
boatman, and he will soon make a ﬁrst-rate surfman.”
“Why, Judge,” Miss Hannah asked, “ do you
really think that Tom ought to take such a place,
and leave me here alone?”
“Do I think he ought to take it!” the Judge re-
peated, as if the mere idea of not taking it ﬁlled him
with horror; “I think it’s a chance that any young
fellow ought to jump at.”
He went on to explain how Tom would be only a
few miles away, how he could be home all summer,
and even in winter could come up to visit his'aunt
occasionally. But even the Judge might have failed
to convince Miss Hannah, if he had not wisely re-
served his strongest argument for the last.
“ This will only be a short trial trip, at any rate,
you know,” he said. “The station closes on the ﬁrst
of June, and then you will have Tom at home with
you for the summer. Even if you have any doubt
about his going there permanently, he certainly
ought to have a chance to try it for a few weeks.”
That was the argument that settled the matter in
Tom’s favor, and that induced his aunt,-though still
with some reluctance, to consent to his going. She
would have her boy again in a few weeks, and 'then
perhaps he would not care to go back.
“I tell you what it is, Mr. Thomas Perry,” she
said, after the Judge had gone, “if you’re to start
to-morrow morning, you’d better not be standing here
telling me what a heap of things you can buy me with


44 THE 315.40H PATROL.
your sixty dollars a month, for there’s work to be
done. Thank my stars your clothes are all in order,
but they’ve got to be packed. And you’ll have to
run down to the store and get yourself some new
handkerchiefs and stockings. Go and get the rabbit
traps and things out of that chest of yours, and I’ll
do your packing for you. Poor souls, what do boys
know about packing! ”
Tom went over to his room (for in the Perry
cottage all the rooms were on one ﬂoor) and un-
locked his chest and opened it.
“ I didn’t think of that,” he said to himself; “of
course I must take my chest along.”
That chest was Tom’s most valued possession. It
was larger than most trunks, with brass handles on
the ends, and a lock like the lock of a prison door,
with key to match. “ T. PERRY ” was painted on the
top in dingy white letters; but originally the name
did not stand for our Tom, but for his grandfather;
for it was the very chest his grandfather had used
when he was a sailor, before he became a captain.
Then Tom’s father had used it in some of his voy-
ages; and some one of its owners had given it a
coat of dark green paint.
“ Rabbit traps! ” he laughed, as he raised the lid ;
“as if I kept rabbit traps in my chest! I guess
Aunt Hannah must have meant this snooge wire,”
and he took out, ﬁrst thing, a roll of ﬁne brass wire.
Every Way’s Landing boy keeps a roll of snooge wire
if he can, for the woods are full of rabbits.


IN THE IIANDS OF THE INSPECTORS. 45
Then he lifted out a toy schooner, that he had
made himself with great labor. Then a thick Bible
that he had earned in Sunday School by reciting a
certain number of verses. Then a pocket knife that
Judge Naylor had given him long before, but that he
considered much too ﬁne to use. Then an old pocket
book that contained three silver quarters. Then a
pair of iron rowlocks. Then the brass top of an old
ship’s binnacle, saved because “ it might come in
handy some time.” Then a wooden box full of ﬁsh-
ing-lines and hooks. .-
These were all of Tom’s possessions, except a little
square box carefully wrapped up in tissue paper, and
tied with a black ribbon, which he picked up as if it
held something sacred; and closing the now empty
chest he sat down and began to untie the ribbon.
But before he had gone far he changed his mind,
retied the bow, and laid the box gently upon his bed.
It was not the time, he thought, to handle those few
little mementos of his father and mother.
When he went down to the store to buy his hand-
kerchiefs, he found that everybody knew already of
his appointment. 
“Hello, Tom ! ” said Billy Curtis, when they met
in the street; “going to be a Life-Saver, are you?
I don’t see much fun in that job.”
“I’m not goingto do it for fun,” Tom answered.
“I wanted work, and took the ﬁrst thing I could
get. I think it’s a good job, though.”
“Ch, you’ll soon get enough of that,” Billy ex-


46 THE 5.5.4 CH PA 7‘I\’0L.
claimed. “My Uncle Jake worked at the Great
Harbor station one winter, and he says he wouldn’t
spend another winter there for all the money in the
county. He says it’s a regular dog’s life. You
freeze all winter, and you don’t see a soul; and you
have to toe the mark there, I tell you.”
“That’s all right! ” Tom laughed. “I expect to
toe the mark. I’m lucky to ﬁnd any mark to toe.”
In the store it was the same thing, only more
encouraging. He selected a dozen handkerchiefs
and several pairs of stockings, following Miss Han-
nah’s directions, and handed Mr. Herkimer a note
in payment.
“ That’s all right, Tom,” Mr. Herkimer said, push-
ing the note back. “I hear you are going to leave
us, and I want you to take those for a little present
from me. So you are going to be a young Life-
Saver, are you? Well, if you start for a wrecked
ship, you’ll get to her, I’ll warrant that. Good luck
to you, Tom.”
As he hurried up the street he was stopped by a
hand laid upon his shoulder, and in the twilight he
recognized the form and voice of the Rev. Mr.
Bailey.
“What’s this I hear, my boy! ” said his pastor and
Sunday School teacher; “you’ve gone into the Life-
Saving Service? That is a' noble work, Tom, and I
think you will do well in it. But what are we going
to do without you in Sunday School? Well, we can’t
expect to have you always, I suppose. God bless


11v THE 11/uvos OF THE INSPECTORS. 47
you, my boy, and take care of you. Be the same
Tom Perry on the beach that you have always been
here, and the service will have reason to be proud of
you.”
“Well, upon my word!” Tom said to himself as
he went on; “I never imagined I had so many
friends in Way’s Landing! I don’t see what I’ve
ever done to make anybody sorry I’m going away!”
He forgot at the moment the thousand errands he
had done so willingly; the thousand little kindnesses
so readily performed; the years of minding his own
business without annoying other people; the good
record in school and church and Sunday School ; the
smile and kind word always ready. But perhaps it
was just as well that he forgot those things.
“Oh, Tom, I’m so worried about your big thick
ulster! ” Miss Hannah declared when he returned to
the house. “The moths have eaten it till it’s not
ﬁt to be seen, and you never can go without that
ulster.”
“ What, in April and May! ” Tom laughed ; “ why,
I’ll hardly need an overcoat, Aunty, much less my
big ulster.”
“Well, I declare, Tom! ” Aunt Hannah had to
laugh too. “I believe I must be losing my senses!
It’s seemed to me all the time that you were going
down there into the bitterest cold weather.”
But Aunt Hannah was not the only one who was
excited that evening. Tom could hardlyjrealize yet
that he was actually to have a trial in the Life-Savin g


48 THE 512.4cH PATROL.
Service, and that his aunt had actually given her con-
sent. It was a good thing for him that he was too busy
to have much time to think. There were ﬁfty things
that even Aunt Hannah could not attend to for him,
and before bedtime he had to run over to Squire
Ingraham’s and engage the express wagon to take
his chest down to the wharf in the morning.
And morning came only too fast for Aunt Hannah,
and all too slowly for Tom. He was awake long before
daylight, and promptly at eight o’clock he was at the
wharf by the bridge, fairly weighted down with fond
farewells and last words of caution from his aunt.
“ I’m glad you’re on time, young Perry,” was Cap-
tain Powers’ greeting. He was already in the boat,
making ready to start. “I couldn’t have waited for
you, for I have business at the station this afternoon.
The special inspectors are to be there at two o’clock,
and every man must be at his post.”
Tom did not know enough about the service to
understand what a visit from the special inspectors
meant; but he knew a good deal about a boat, and
it was a delight to him to see how Captain Powers
handled the big mainsail that looked about four sizes
too large for the boat. It was not one of the station
boats, as he expected, but an ordinary little skiff,
with a mast set up well forward; and Tom and the
Captain and the chest made none too much ballast.
Drawing only a few inches of water, the Captain
did not trouble himself much about the channel; but
with a full tide just beginning to ebb, and a brisk


AT EIGHT O’CLOCK HE WAS AT THE WHARF BY THE BRIDGE


IN THE HANDS OF THE INSPECTORS. 49
little breeze from the northeast, he cut across hidden
bars and almost grazed projecting points in a way
that saved many a long detour.
“ You must know the river pretty well, Captain,”
Tom suggested, “or you would hardly try some of
these short cuts you are making.”
“I ought to know it!” the Captain laughed. “ I’ve
sailed this river for thirty years or -more, in most
every sort of craft you can think of except a steam-
ship. I was a Way’s Landing boy once, you know.
That’s the reason I came up here to get a man for
the crew.”
“ I don’t know yet which side of the river we are
bound for,” Tom went on. “I know there is a station
on the south side of the inlet and another to the
north, a little way up the beach. Which one is yours,
Captain ? ”
“The one to the north,” Captain Powers replied.
“The. Great Harbor Station, they call it. We are
only six miles below Atlantic City, and right between
South Atlantic and Longport. So it is quite a lively
place in summer; but dead enough in winter, I tell
you.”
Before they had been under way an hour Tom was
almost ready to believe that Captain Powers could
sail a boat right up into the wind. The further they
went, the broader the river grew and the more breeze
they caught, and long before noon they were down
bif Somers’ Point. After they had passed the six
islands that almost make a barricade across the lower


50 THE BEACH PATROL
part of the bay, the Captain stood off for the north
and east, thus showing Tom that instead of going out
through the inlet, he intended to make a landing on
the bay shore, in the rear of the station.
“ That was a ﬁne run!” Tom exclaimed, when he
saw how the land lay —a long narrow strip of sand,
with the ocean in front and the bay behind, and the
Life-Saving Station standing alone close to the outer
beach. “ It is hardly one o’clock yet.”
“None too soon, either,” the Captain answered.
“ Do you see that carriage standing there under
the lee of the house? That’s the inspectors, sure.
They’ve come a little ahead of time; but it doesn’t
do to keep them waiting.”
It was easy to see that the Captain felt a little
nervous about meeting the inspectors; but as Tom
knew nothing about them, they did not worry him in
the least. He might not have been so unconcerned,
if he had known how much they were to have to do
with his ﬁrst day in the Life-Saving Service.
The men at the station saw the boat coming in,
and two'of them ran down to help pull her out of
the water. The Captain did not wait to take a hand
at this, but started at once across the narrow strip
of sand, taking Tom with him. The rest of the crew,
and three strangers in civilian clothes, stood about
the station door.
“ This is Captain Powers, I suppose?” one of the
strangers said,—a short, stout, middle-aged man}
who looked as if he liked a good dinner.
!
!
I


IN THE HANDS OF THE INSPECTORS. SI
“Yes, sir,” said the Captain. “And you are one
of the inspectors?”
“I am Lieutenant Sawyer,” said the stranger, in
a gruff, blunt way, that contrasted oddly with his
jolly round face. “ This is Lieutenant Daniels. This
is Surgeon Westcott. We’ve no time to lose, now.
Get your men up stairs.”
It surprised Tom that even an inspector could
speak in this authoritative way to the captain of
the station; but’ he was still more surprised when
the Captain told all of his crew, Tom included, to go
up stairs.
They went through a side door into the sitting-
room in the rear, and thence up the stairs to the
sleeping-room above, only the Captain remaining
down in the boat-room with the inspectors.
Tom was wise enough to wait quietly to see what
might happen, instead of asking questions; and it
did not take him long to learn from the conversa-
tion of the men that only two of the old members
of the crew had ever been through this sort of in-
spection before. And these experienced men enjoyed
the curiosity of their juniors, and gave very myste-
rious and unsatisfactory answers when they were
questioned.
For nearly half an hour they were kept waiting,
while the Captain went over his accounts, and showed
the inspectors that the boats, and all the station
property, were in good order. Then they heard the
Captain coming up stairs.


52 THE BEACH PATROL.
“ They want you down stairs, young Perry,” he
said, as he entered the room. “Go down to the
inspectors.”
“ Want me, sir! ” Tom exclaimed. “I hope they’re
not going to examine me, Captain. I don’t know the
ﬁrst thing about my duties yet.”
“ Never mind,” the Captain laughed. “ You won’t
have to tell anything you don’t know. Just go
down, and do as they tell you.”
Tom hurried down the stairs, ‘thinking it very
strange that the inspectors should begin with the
youngest and newest member of the crew. He
could not know, of course, that the youngest surf-
man is always selected for the duty he was to
perform.
“Well,” he said to himself, “there’s no use of
being frightened. I’d better just take it like a man,
whatever’s coming.”
So when he opened the boat-room door he tried
to look at his ease, and stepped in, with his hat in
his hand.
There sat the inspectors in armchairs, around a
little table, leaning back and looking comfortable.
But to Tom the Supreme Court of the United States,
sitting in black silk gowns, could not have looked
more solemn and formidable.
“Come here, boy!” Lieutenant Sawyer growled at
him. He was the short and stout one with the gruﬁ
voice.
Tom stepped forward, and stood wondering.


11v TIIE /1.4/ms or THE INSPECTORS. 53
“Take off your coat and vest!” the Lieutenant
shouted, so sharply that he made Tom start. But
he did as he was told, and hung the garments over
the side of the big surf-boat. _
“Now you’re a drowned man,” the Lieutenant
snapped. “ Understand? Drowned. Dead.”
“ Drowned, sir ! ” Tom repeated, not knowing what
else to say. “Dead! ”
“ Dead as a door-nail ! ” the Lieutenant replied.
“Stand aside out of the way till we want you. Now,
gentlemen, are we ready?”
Both the other olﬁcers said that they were ready.
“Call down the Captain, boy!” Lieutenant Sawyer
growled; and Tom ran to the foot of the stairs and
called Captain Powers.
The Captain looked awkward and uncomfortable
enough, at ﬁrst, standing before the inspectors wait-
ing for them to ask him questions. But when they
began to ask him about the various appliances and
their uses, his awkwardness soon wore off, for he was
thoroughly at home with everything connected with
the Life-Saving Service.
They asked him about launching the surf-boat,
about the method of using the life-car, about the
breeches buoy, the mortar and shot line, and a dozen
other things that Tom had never heard of before;
and as the smaller articles were named, the Captain
took each of them from its place and showed how it
was to be handled.
“ Very good,” Lieutenant Sawyer said at length, in


54 THE BEACH PATROL.
his gruff way, after he had put the Captain through a
severe examination. “ Now show us what you know
about resuscitating an apparently drowned person.
You can use this'boy for a dummy. Step up here,
boy ! ”
Tom stepped up, still wondering what he was ex-
pected to do in his new character of a drowned man.
“ Lie down on the ﬂoor, on your back! ” the Lieu-
tenant ordered; “ and lie still till we are done with
you. Go ahead, Captain.”
Perhaps Tom was drowned — dead—since the
Lieutenant ordered it so. But he kept his eyes very
busy for a drowned man.
The ﬁrst thing he saw was Captain Powers kneel-
ing by his side and hurriedly unbuttoning his shirt.
“Whack! whack! whack! ” The Captain gave
him three rousing slaps on the chest with his open
hand, “ to restore consciousness,” as he explained to
the inspectors, though it seemed to Tom more likely
to knock all the consciousness out of him.
But that was mild compared with what was to fol-
low. The Captain stood up and turned Tom over as if
he had been indeed a dead man or a log of wood, till
he lay ﬂat on his face. Then he rolled Tom’s coat
and vest into a wad and put them under his stomach.
“Open your mouth!” he ordered; explaining at
the same time that if the patient had been really un-
conscious he would have opened the mouth forcibly
and put a cork or a stick between the teeth to keep
it open.


IN THE HANDS OF THE INSPECTORS.
The Captain then pressed hard on the hollow of
Tom’s back, and kept his weight on till Tom began
to feel crushed.
“ To expel the water from the stomach and chest,”
he explained; and then turned Tom over again so that
the roll of clothes was under the small of his back.
Now the Captain was down on his knees again,
one knee on each side of his patient, looking so seri-
ously into Tom’s face that Tom could hardly help
laughing. But the desire to laugh soon disappeared
when the Captain dug his thumbs into the pit of
Tom’s stomach, and with his ﬁngers in between the
short ribs, threw all his weight upon his hands, at the
same time squeezing the waist inward and upward,
till it seemed as if Tom’s very heart must be driven
out of his mouth.
With a ﬁnal shove that made Tom’s ribs crackle
the Captain let go suddenly and sprang back, only to
repeat the process again and again at intervals of a
few seconds.
“ To produce breathing,” he said that motion was
for. -
“Very good,” said the Lieutenant. “How long
would you keep that up?”
“For four hours, if necessary,” the Captain an-
swered. “ I should never give a man up for dead in
less than four hours.”
“That will do!” the Lieutenant growled. “You
can step outside. Get up, boy, and call Henry
Turner.”


56 THE 125.4011 PATROL.
“ That’s something worth knowing,” Tom said to
himself, as he sprang to his feet and went to the foot
of the stairs again. “ I never was so sore in my life;
but I suppose that must be the proper way to handle
a man who seems to be drowned.”
He was right about that. In one short but severe
lesson he had learned the best known method of
restoring to consciousness a person who is apparently
drowned — the method used in every Life-Saving
Station in the country.
“ But I wonder,” he could not help adding, as
Henry Turner came down the stairs, “whether the
whole crew are going to save my life that way? If
they do, I wouldn’t give much for my ribs! ”


CHAPTER IV.
THE GREAT HARBOR LIFE-SAVING STATION.
IT gradually dawned upon Tom that each of the
three inspectors had his own ﬁeld of duty. He
could tell this not only by watching what they did,
but by overhearing what they said. Lieutenant
Sawyer’s work was to learn what the crew knew
about their duties in general. Surgeon Westcott
kept a sharp eye upon the physical condition of each
man, and occasionally asked the men questions about
their health. And Lieutenant Daniels was to give
the crew a practical test in the use of the appliances.
He did not have to wait long, either, to learn
whether he was to be “ resuscitated ” from drowning
by each member of the crew. He stood aside while
Henry Turner told what he knew about the boats
and machinery, and then was laid upon the ﬂoor
again while the giant surfman slapped his chest and
squeezed his ribs. Turner was the largest and
heaviest member of the crew, but he was as gentle
as his great paws and powerful arms allowed. He
was sent out in his turn to join the Captain, and
Ezra Waterhouse and Myron Hawthorn were called
57


58 THE BEA cu PA moz.
down, one at a time, and each when the time came
used Tom for a drowned man. This disposed of
four. of the crew, and the young surfman knew that
the two who were left up stairs were not much older
than himself, certainly neither of them over twenty.
“Call David Ackerley,” the Lieutenant ordered;
and David Ackerley came down, smiling and dis-
posed to turn everything into a joke, but the Lieuten-
ant ordered him about in such a ferocious way that
the smile soon disappeared from his face. He could
not resist the temptation, however, when his turn
came to resuscitate Tom, to have a little sport with
him. When he took hold of Tom’s waist he pre-
tended to fumble about to ﬁnd the right spot for his
thumbs and ﬁngers, but in reality he tickled him so
that he had to squirm, and could hardly help laugh-
ing. But Tom saw the good-natured look in David’s
face, and made up his mind that he and David would
be friends.
That made ﬁve times that he had heard the use of
everything in the boat-room explained; and he had
given close attention to every Word.
“I believe I could go through that examination
myself,” he thought. “I hope they will give me a
chance.”
“ Call James Hoover,” the Lieutenant growled;
and when James Hoover slouched into the room Tom
saw that it was the only member of the crew whose
appearance had made an unfavorable impression
upon him while they were all up stairs together.


THE GREA T HARBOR LIFE-SA VING STA TION. 59
Hoover was not more than nineteen or twenty, of
medium height and build. But there was a drag to
his feet when he walked, and he stood in a slouchy
attitude and kept his eyes ﬁxed upon the ﬂoor. It
became evident with the ﬁrst word that the Lieuten-
ant did not like his looks, and would put him
through his paces.
“ Stand up! what’s the matter with you!” he
growled.
Hoover looked confused, but tried to straighten
himself up.
“Look me in the eye! Don’t hang your head
down like a dog! ”
By the time a half-dozen such orders had been
hurled at him, Hoover was in such a state that he
hardly knew the surf-boat from the breeches buoy;
and when his turn came to operate upon Tom there
was a look in his eye that boded no good for the
apparently drowned man.
“That fellow is going to hurt me all he can,” Tom
said to himself; “ I know it by the way he looks at
me. But I’ll not let him make me yell, not if he
squeezes me to pieces.”
Hoover gave him a worse pinching than he had had
yet, and kept his weight on Tom’s chest long enough
to take his breath away. But the new surfman gritted
his teeth and bore it all without making a sound.
“Now, boy, stand around here!” the Lieutenant
ordered, after Hoover had been sent out. “What’s
your name ? ”
F’-‘


60 THE BEACH PATROL.
$1
“ Thomas Perry, sir.
“ How long have you been a member of the crew?”
“I just came this afternoon, sir,” Tom answered.
“Then you don’t know anything about the use of
these appliances?” the Lieutenant asked.
“Oh, yes, sir!” Tom quickly replied; “I think
I know the most of them.” '
“ Well, we’ll see,” the Lieutenant growled; and he
asked Tom about one thing after another, and re-
ceived answers which showed at least that Tom had
been keeping his eyes and ears open.
“ That will do,” the Lieutenant at length an-
nounced. “ Call the Captain again.”
When the Captain entered, the Lieutenant told
him that all the men had done very well.
“I was afraid this boy here was rather too young,”
he added; “ but I see he has his wits about him.
He will make you a good man, if you break him in
right. Now, ‘Lieutenant Daniels, the station is in
your hands.”
“We will hardly have time for boat practice this
afternoon,” Lieutenant Daniels said, looking at his
watch, and speaking in a low, mild tone, very differ-
ent from Lieutenant Sawyer’s. “ You can give us
an exercise with the breeches buoy and shot-line,
Captain, at three hundred yards’ range.”
“Very well, sir,” Captain Powers answered, and
immediately called in Turner, llraterhouse, and Ac-
kerley, and gave them a number of orders that Tom
did not understand.


THE GREAT HARBOR LIFE-SA VING STATIO/V. 6!
By this time no one paid the slightest attention to
the new surfman. His day’s work was over, for the
Captain wanted only experienced men to drill before
the inspectors, and Tom had nothing to do but nurse
his sore ribs and watch the exercise with the breeches
buoy. 
He expected to hear a great shouting of orders,
but there was no shouting. Every man knew his
duty and was at his post. In a few minutes Tom
saw that a big triangle had been set up some dis-
tance down the beach—a triangle made of long
spars, their lower ends set well in the sand and their
upper ends lashed together with a rope where they
crossed, making a ﬁrm scaffolding that looked like
the framework of an immense Indian wigwam. And
in the crotch where the spars crossed, twenty feet
above the ground, sat Myron Hawthorn, looking for
all the world like a big bird sitting in her nest.
The triangle was braced with a guy rope running
to a stake further down the beach ; and three
hundred yards from the triangle, nearer the station
house, another big stake was driven into the
sand.
“Oh, I see!” Tom exclaimed, very much inter-
ested in everything that was done. “ That triangle
is to represent the mast of a wrecked vessel, and the
man is supposed to be a sailor in the rigging. Now
we’ll see how they will get him ashore.
“Ready, sir! ” Henry Turner announced.
Captain Powers put a whistle to his lips and blew


62 THE 515.4 cu m moz.
a loud blast, and Turner, Waterhouse, Ackerley, and
Hoover ran into the boat-room.
When they came out again, still running, two of
the men drew a stout hand-cart on which the heavy
mortar was mounted, with its box of ammunition;
two more dragged a long hawser; and the Captain
carried the breeches buoy, and had a coil of light but
strong line over his arm.
Everything was new and strange to Tom, but the
mortar was what interested him most. A little
sawed-off cannon it looked like, mounted on its own
little carriage in such a way that it could be slanted
to any angle. He knew it was used for ﬁring a shot
over the wreck, but how it carried that heavy hawser
he did not understand yet.
“And that breeches buoy is a queer thing,” he
said to himself. “ I don’t see why they call it a buoy,
for it’s nothing but a very short pair of canvas trou-
sers, with a very long waist coming almost up under
the arms, swelling out at the band into a sort of life-
preserver.”
He did not have much time for wondering, for the
men moved quickly. When they had their appara-
tus nearly down to the ﬁrst stake, the one that was
three hundred yards from the triangle, they stopped
and set the mortar off on the ground, and Captain
Powers himself loaded it. First he took from the
box a long cartridge with a ring in the upper end,
and made one end of his light line fast to the ring.
Then he put the cartridge in the mortar, while Henry


THE GREA T HARBOR LIFE-SA VINO STA TION. 63
Turner straightened up the coil, so that the line would
run free. —
When the loading was ﬁnished, Captain Powers
knelt behind the mortar and aimed it straight for the
man in the triangle, but far over his head.
“ Boom ! ”
A little puff of smoke burst from the mortar, and
away went the shot ﬂying into the air, carrying the
wriggling line with it and behind it like a long snake.
“Well, that’s funny!” Tom exclaimed. “ I never
knew before that you could see a cannon-ball ﬂying
through the air! ”
“ Well aimed, Captain ! ” Lieutenant Daniels cried,
for in an instant the shot struck the ground far be-
yond the triangle, in such a true line that the little
rope settled down directly over the arm that Myron
Hawthorn held out to receive it.
Immediately the men by the mortar made fast the
“ whip” to the end of the light line—the whip being
a strong rope running through a single pulley, form-
ing what sailors call an endless line.
“ All well. Haul in ! ” Captain Powers shouted
to Myron Hawthorn; and the man on the triangle
began to pull in on the small line that had been ﬁred
over his head, thus drawing the whip out to him.
In a few seconds Hawthorn had the whip-block
made fast to the upper part of the triangle, and a
similar block was made fast to the stake near the
mortar.
“Well, that’s the neatest thing I ever saw! ” Tom


64 7’/115 BEA 0H PA TROL.
exclaimed. “ Now they have communication with
the wreck, and can haul things back and forth. All
done in less than two minutes, too ! ”
When the signal came from the triangle that the
whip was fast, the Captain and Henry Turner attached
the hawser to it— a great stout cable nearly an inch
and a half thick.
“ All hands! Heave all! ” the Captain cried.
This was work that Tom could help with. He
laid hold of the whip with the rest, and as they
pulled, the big hawser travelled rapidly out to the
triangle. When he looked around again, Myron
Hawthorn had the end of the hawser made fast to
the triangle, two or three feet above the whip.
That made a stout bridge of rope from the shore
to the wreck, the triangle of course representing the
wreck ; and the shore end of the hawser was made
fast to the stake.
Now Captain Powers took up the breeches buoy,
and Tom was all eyes to see how he would handle it.
The four ropes that gripped the life preserver at the
top, or band, of the breeches, met above in an iron
ring, and this was connected with a block called a
“ traveller.” This block was snapped on to the
hawser, and the ends of the whip were bent into the
block-strap and secured.
“Give way ! ” the Captain ordered; and all hands,
Tom included, pulled again on the whip. Out went
the breeches buoy to the triangle, suspended from the
traveller, that rolled smoothly along over the hawser.


THE GREAT HARBOR LIFE—SA Vma STATION 65
As soon as the buoy reached the triangle Myron
Hawthorn stepped into it, just like getting into a
pair of short trousers, and waved his arm.
“ Way all ! ” Captain Powers shouted; and the
men seized the other rope of the whip and drew the
breeches buoy, with Myron Hawthorn in it, rapidly
toward them. In a few seconds the rescued sailor
was by their side, and stepped out smiling.
“ Well, that beats my time!” Tom said to young
Ackerley, who stood near him. “Why, it was less
than four minutes from the time they left the house
till they had the man safely landed. I should say
the Life-Saving Service was a thing to be proud of!
I don’t see how anybody can be lost along the coast,
with one of these stations every few miles.”
“Don’t you?” Ackerley laughed. “This is only
play, to-day. You want to see it some time in winter,
when you can’t stand on the beach without holding
on to something, for the wind. And the waves break-
ing in so you can’t see over them, and the spray
turning to ice as fast as it strikes, and the people on
the wreck so numbed that they can’t make the hawser
fast! Then you’ll have a different notion about it.”
As soon as possible after the breeches-buoy exercise
the inspectors started off for Atlantic City; and Tom
could see that the Captain and crew felt relieved to
have the inspection over, and over satisfactorily. He
helped carry the apparatus back to the station, and
in a very few minutes everything was as snug and
orderly as before.. No throwing things down in a


66 THE BEACH PATROL.
I
corner, to be hunted for when needed! There was
a place for everything, and everything was kept in
its place, all snug and shipshape.
“ How is it that you give Captain Powers different
titles ? ” he got a chance to ask Ackerley. “ I noticed
that the inspectors called him ‘ keeper,’ but the crew
always call him ‘ captain.’ Which is right ? ”
“ They’re both right,” Ackerley replied. “ His
oﬁicial title is ‘ keeper ’ ; but it is the custom in every
station for the men to call the keeper ‘ captain.’ So
you won’t go wrong if you keep on calling him
‘ captain.’ ”
Tom had spent so much time already in the big
boat-room, examining it not only in the usual way,
but while lying on his back on the ﬂoor as the men
squeezed his ribs, that he felt tolerably familiar with
its contents. But the one thing that he expected to
be more prominent than any other, he could not ﬁnd.
Where was the life-boat? His ﬁrst notion about the
service had been that some day there would be a great
shout of “Man the life-boat ! ” and away they would
all go after some ship in distress. But he could not
ﬁnd any life-boat, so he asked Ackerley about it.
“Can’t ﬁnd it, eh ?” Ackerley laughed. “ A life-
boat’s a pretty big thing to lose, too. Well, I guess
the main reason why you ean’t ﬁnd it is because
there’s’ none here. We don’t have any life-boat at
this station. Less than half the stations have them,
because in most situations they are not as useful as a
good surf-boat. This is a ﬁne surf-boat we have, and


THE GREA T HARBOR LIFE-SA VING STA TIO./V. 67
we can do better work with it than we could with any
life-boat, and it’s much easier to handle.”
“ Show the lad the life-car,” said Henry Turner,
who came in at that moment, and overheard some
of the conversation. “ He keeps, his eyes open, this
boy, and we must give him a chance to learn.”
“Yes, sir, I know about that,” Tom exclaimed, as
Ackerley stepped over and laid his hand upon the life-
car. Of course he knew about it, for he had heard
each member of the crew explain its uses and the
mode of operating it. “ It is a metallic car, shaped
like a boat, decked over, with a trap-door in the
middle of the deck. It is sent out to the ship on
a hawser, just like the breeches buoy; and when the
people get in and lie down ﬂat, the trap-door is
fastened down, and the car is drawn ashore. It
makes a fellow shudder, though, it looks so much
like a big coﬁin! And I should think the people
would smother in there.”
“ They can’t smother,” Mr. Turner replied. “ Peo-
ple are never -in it more than two or three minutes,
and there are some small holes in the deck to admit
air. Everybody is afraid of the life-car at ﬁrst, it
looks so poky to lie down and be shut in; but they
soon get over that. Many a good life this car has
saved, I tell you.”
There seemed to be nothing to prevent the men
from going to any part of the house, so Tom wan-
dered about to see what his new home was like.
The big boat-room was the front room, that in an


68 THE BEACH m nroz.
ordinary house would have been the parlor. Back
of that was another room, about half the size, with
a big table in the middle on which a white cloth
had been spread and some dishes laid, so it was not
hard to see that that was where the crew ate their
meals, and no doubt sat when they were not busy;
for there were plenty of chairs, and a big stove close
to the chimney. A clock marked “ U. S. L. S. S.”
hung on the wall, and near the clock was a barom-
eter. In a corner was a small bookcase, marked
“U. S. L. S. S. Library.” Nearly everything of any
consequence was stamped with the letters that were
already familiar to the new surfman, “ U. S. L. S. S.”
This room was empty, for the men were still at
work. But Tom heard a noise in another room
beyond, and opened the door. The whiﬁ of boiled
beef and turnips that instantly greeted him told him
that that room was the kitchen. But the cook was
at work there preparing supper, so he closed the
door and went up stairs.
The ceilings slanted in the second story, but there
was one good large room in which seven cot beds
stood in a row. By the side of one of the cots,
the last one, was Tom’s chest, so he knew that that
was to be his bed. There were hooks in the wall
for hanging clothes upon, and at one end was a
large washstand, with several basins and plenty of
towels. Up stairs and down, everything was as
clean and white as a man—of-war’s deck or a New
England kitchen. Through an open door Tom saw


THE GREAT HARBOR LIFE-SA VI/VG sm T10./V. 69
a smaller room, with only one bed, and he rightly
judged that to be the Captain’s room. From the big
room a plain pine stairway led to a scuttle in the
roof; and through the open scuttle he saw the legs
of a man who was evidently standing on a platform
on the roof.
“Why, Mr. Hawthorn, you up here!” he ex-
claimed, when he got part way up the stairs and
saw that the man on the roof was Myron Hawthorn.
“ Yes,” Hawthorn answered, lowering the marine
glasses that he had been holding up to his eyes; “ it’s
my watch. We always have a man on watch by
daylight, you know, and a patrol on the beach at
night. You’ll soon get a dose of this business, if
you’re going to be a surfman. Come up, if you
want to.”
Tom went up and found that the platform on the
roof was about six feet square, with a railing around
it, and a big flagstaff rising from the middle.
“I wonder if they’ve got supper most ready
down there?” Hawthorn asked. “I’m getting an
emptiness.”
“ I think I’ve got one too ! ” Tom laughed, remem-
bering that he had eaten nothing since his early
breakfast. “Yes, sir, I saw the cook at work as I
came past. Do you always keep a cook, Mr. Haw-
thorn? I thought the crew took turns at doing the
cooking.”
“So they do, at most stations,” Hawthorn an-
swered. “ But this is a very stylish sort of a station,


70 THE BEACH PATROL.
I tell you. We have a separate kitchen, which many
of the stations don’t have; and we hire a cook and
do things up grand. The cook and the grub cost so
much a month, and every man pays his share. I
hope you’re a good feeder, youngster, or you’ll lose
money by that; a man pays just the same whether
he has any appetite or not.”
Tom was about to say that he thought he could
do his share at the table, when he heard steps com-
ing upthe stairs, and in a moment Ezra Waterhouse
appeared, come to take the watch and relieve Haw-
thorn. Waterhouse had already had his supper, in
advance of any of the others, so that he could keep
his watch till dark.
“Anddo you keep a man on watch all the time,
up on the roof?” Tom asked, when he and Haw-
thorn went down the stairs.
“No; I wish we could,” was the answer. “ Only
by daylight, and in clear weather. When there’s
rain, snow, or fog, anything to make the weather so
thick that we can’t see two miles from the station in
every direction, then the patrol must go out. You’ll
ﬁnd out soon enough what the beach patrol is. But
this is one of the best stations on the coast for the
patrolman, after all.”
“Why so?” Tom asked.
“Because the beats are so short,” Hawthorn an-
swered. “ You see two miles south of us is the inlet,
and, of course, the patrol can’t go further than that.
Then the next station, north of us, is only four miles


THE GREA T HARBOR LIFE-SA VIIVG STA TION. 7!
away, and the patrol from there meets us half-way.
That makes only two miles a patrolman has to walk,
and two back, on each trip. The watch is four
hours, and a man makes three round trips in his
watch.”
“ Twelve miles in all!” Tom exclaimed. “ Iguess
I’m good for that, when my turn comes.”
His turn came soon to sit down to the supper
table, and he was not at all sorry. But he had not
as much company there as he expected. The only
ones to sit down were Captain Powers, Hawthorn,
Ackerley, and himself.
“We can’t all eat at once, you know,” Captain
Powers said, seeing Tom look around for the rest.
“Waterhouse is on watch, and Turner and Hoover
are out on patrol. But fall to ; you must be hungry.”
The way that great piece of boiled beef melted
away before the four hungry men! And the turnips
and potatoes, and the thick slabs of bread and butter!
No mere cups of tea, such as he had been used to.
The tea came in bowls, each bowl holding more than
a pint. And afterwards came a pyramid of dough-
boys. He did not have to ask questions about the
doughboys, for he had been to sea a little himself,
and knew all about them. They were great balls of
boiled dough, each as big as an apple dumpling, eaten
with molasses poured over them. A half of one
would give a sedentary man a ﬁt of dyspepsia for a
month; but those hearty Life-Savers thought four
about a fair allowance for each man. Tom contented


72 THE BEACH PATROL.
himself with three, though he could have mastered
another.
Such =1 big supper made him sleepy, but he was too
anxious to see all that was done to think of sleep yet.
The table was cleared off and a brown cloth put over
it, the hanging lamp overhead gave an excellent light,
Ackerley took a book from the case and fell to read-
ing, and Hawthorn took a newspaper from his pocket.
Captain Powers got out a little diary and began to
make some entries, and Tom was left to himself.
He went over to the little library and found some
books there about the sea and about Life-Savers that
he was sure would interest him, and spent nearly half
an hour looking over one of them. Then his con-
science began to smite him a little. Hadn’t he been
a triﬂe neglectful of Aunt Hannah? He had been so
busy all day, seeing so many new and strange things,
that he had hardly had a chance to think of her.
And there the dear old aunty was sitting alone at
her work, as he very well knew, wondering what her
boy was doing.
“I’ll write her a letter to-night,” he said to him-
self, as he closed his book, “ and tell her all about
the inspection. There must be a post oﬂice at Long-
port, and I can get it mailed there.”
He was about to start for his chest to get a sheet
of paper, when he suddenly learned that a Life-Saver
is not always his own master.
“I think I’ll change my mind about you, young
Perry,” Captain Powers said. “I was going to send


THE GREA T HARBOR LIFE—SA VING STA TION.
you to bed to nurse your sore ribs; but instead of
that I’ll send you along with Ackerley when he goes
on patrol at eight o’clock.”
“All right, sir,” Tom replied cheerfully. The
prospect of a twelve-mile walk before going to bed
took him by surprise, but he was ready to do what-
ever he was told.
“ You see we have been one man short,” the Cap-
tain added, “and that has bothered us. So the
sooner we break you in, the better. Yes, you can
patrol with Ackerley to-night to learn the ropes, and
to-morrow we’ll set you to work on your own hook.”


CHAPTER V.
A WRECK on THE BAR.
“DON’T think it’s going to be a warm walk,
youngster,” Ackerley said, when he was
making ready to start. “It was warm enough in
the sun this afternoon; but there’s a stiff breeze off
the water, and you’ll ﬁnd it cold enough before we’re
through.
Tom took the hint and put on warm clothes, and
before he had been out long he found them none too
thick. He wanted to ask some questions about the
curious things that Ackerley carried with him, some
in his hand and some slung around his neck by a
strap; but he wisely concluded to wait and see.
The big brass lantern, burning brightly and marked
“ U. S. L. S. S.,” needed no explanation.
But Ackerley had no hesitation about asking ques-
tions. He was at home, and Tom was a newcomer,
so he felt privileged to ask anything he liked.
“How do you come to be down here in this ser-
vice?” he began, soon after they left the station for
their breezy walk along the beach. “ I see you have
been at school a good deal, and know a lot of things.
74


- .4, WRECK 01v THE BAR. 75
I should think you’d rather have struck out to be a
lawyer, or a teacher, or something like that.”
“I wanted to make some money,” Tom replied
frankly. “I have an aunt who has always taken
care of me; and a fellow of my size don’t feel good,
you know, lying around and having a woman work
for him.”
“I should say not! ” Ackerley exclaimed, with a
whistle. “So that’s the way the wind blows, is it?
But couldn’t you have made more money in the end
to study for some profession ?”
“Yes, in the end, maybe,” Tom laughed; “but
it’s a long while waiting for a square meal till a man
can make money in any profession. I think when a
fellow is strong enough to work with his hands he
can’t make a mistake by learning some trade, what-
ever he may do afterwards. And this service is as
good as a trade.” "
“ I know a good many fellows who would like to
trade it for something else,” Ackerley rejoined.
“Now there’s Wax Hoover. His name’s not Wax,
you know, but I call him that because he sticks so.
When he sits down in a chair he sticks to it as long
as he can. He’d like to trade his job for something
easier.”
“He doesn’t seem to take as much interest in his
work as some of the men,” Tom suggested.
“Interest! How could he take interest when he
has no principle? But it’s mean for me to say that.
I blurted it out because I’m too fond of a joke. I


76 THE BEACH PA TROL.
won’t say another word about Wax except to tell
you, for your own safety, that when I ﬁrst came
here he tried to drag me into all sorts of schemes to
shirk my work—how to beat the time-detector, and
sleep on watch, and all that. You needn’t mention
that; but look out, for those things don’t pay.”
“ I shouldn’t do them if they did ! ” Tom declared
so honestly and frankly that “ Dave,” as Ackerley
soon insisted upon being called, took more of a
liking to him than ever.
While they walked and talked their eyes were
busy, for their duty was to watch both sea and shore
—looking not only for wrecks or vessels in distress,
but also for ships out of their course, standing in
toward the shoals.
“That’s right, youngster! Watch ’em!” Dave
laughed, seeing Tom shade his eyes with both hands
and peer into the darkness. “I know just how you
feel about it. You’ve had the luck to strike an in-
spection the ﬁrst day, and now you expect a wreck
the ﬁrst night, to give you a chance to show your
pluck. But you’ll be disappointed in that. Wrecks
come a long way apart, and seldom at this time of
year. We might see a vessel standing too close to
the bar, but that’s about all we can expect.”
“What would you do, then,” Tom asked, “if you
were to see some ship standing in toward shore?”
“Burn my Coston light, to be sure.” Dave replied.
“This thing,”—and he took from his pocket some-
thing that looked like a short Roman candle. “ That


.4 WRECK 01v THE BAR. 77
ﬁts into the top of this wooden handle ; and you see
there is a brass knob at the other end of the handle.
When I put the Coston in place, and hit the brass
knob a sharp blow, either with my hand or against
a piece of driftwood, it forces a rod up into a little
hole in the end of the signal. That strikes a per-
cussion cap and makes a spark, and whiz! there’s
the light; as bright a red light as ever you saw in
your life, to burn about a minute and talk to the
people on board.”
 “Talk to them!” Tom exclaimed; “what does it
say to them ?”
“That depends,” Dave answered. “ If they’re only
heading toward danger, it says to them, ‘Look out
there! Look out there! You’re running into bad
water! ’ And if it’s not too late, they take the hint,
and sheer oﬁ.”
“But suppose they’re already wrecked?” Tom
asked.
“Ah, then it tells another story! Dave exclaimed;
and Tom saw an animation in his manner that he
had not noticed before. “It may be a big steamer
from Europe, with a thousand people on board.
They’ve come three thousand miles since they saw
land, and the captain thinks he is heading in for
Sandy Hook. But he is out of his reckoning; and
ﬁrst thing he knows his ship is aground, and the sea
breaking over her, and everything going to pieces.”
“Then what does the light say ?” Tom cried. He
was excited, too, over this picture.


78 THE BEA 01/ PATROL.
“Then it says, ‘Cheer up, my hearties! ’ ” David
answered, waving his lantern, and speaking very
loud. “ ‘ Here is help at hand ! This is the American
coast you’re on, and we are the Life-Saving Crew!
We are here to take care of you, with plenty of men
'and boats, and everything we need! Keep up your
pluck, and we’ll bring you all ashore!’
“Then the ship burns a red light to show that
she’s seen us,” Dave went on, “and I run back to the
station as fast as my legs will carry me to give the
alarm. And in ten or ﬁfteen minutes we have a line
ﬁred over the ship and a hawser out, or maybe we’re
out to her ourselves in the surf-boat, and we begin
to bring the people ashore.”
“ That’s grand! ” Tom exclaimed. “And it would
be the same thing anywhere along the coast. A
fellow has a right to be proud to belong to a service
like that! ”
“ Yes; and a right to freeze his hands and feet, or
come in stiﬁ with ice, or get drowned!” Dave
laughed. “ But none of that on this trip; for here’s
the point and here’s where we stop a minute before
we turn back.”
The two miles seemed very short to Tom, he had
been so much interested in the Coston light. And
here at the end of the beat, as far out on the sandy
point as it could stand, was a very small house,
hardly more than a hut, built apparently of what-
ever odds and ends of lumber its owner could ﬁnd.
Tom recognized it at once as a ﬁsherman’s little


A WRECK ON THE BAR.
home. Against the back of it was a very small
shed, made of better boards, and painted brown—
a smooth and tidy shed to be attached to such a
curious little house.
Dave opened the door of this shed without knock-
ing, and stepped inside, and Tom followed.
“Now hold the lantern up here so I can see, my
boy,” Dave requested, and Tom did as he was told.
Dave opened the little leather pouch that was sus-
pended from a strap around his neck like a tourist’s
ﬁeld-glass, and Tom saw a dial inside, something like
a clock’s dial, but diﬁerently marked. Dave then
took a key that hung from the wall by a slender
chain, inserted it in a hole in the little instrument,
and turned the key till something clicked inside the
case.
“ There! ” he exclaimed, as he let the key fall back
to its place and closed the pouch. “That shows that
we’ve been here. This is what we call the ‘time-
detector.’ It moves like a clock, and when I turn
the key a die comes down and prints on the dial
the exact hour and minute when I was here. Every
week the dials are taken out and sent to the depart-
ment at Washington. You see the key is fastened
here and can’t be taken away; that is to make sure
that a man does his duty.”
“And wouldn’t they trust you to come here with-
out such a contrivance to keep track of you!” Tom
exclaimed.
“ Yes, I think they would trust me,” Dave laughed,


80 THE BEA CH PA TROL.
“or you either. But some men can’t be trusted, you
know, and they have to treat all alike.”
“I should think any man would have too much
respect for himself to slouch his work in a service
like this,” Tom declared. “ Why, if the beach patrol
failed to do his duty, hundreds of lives might be lost
through it.”
“So should I,” Dave answered thoughtfully. “I
tell you what it is, youngster, a fellow’s a fool not to
do his duty always and under all circumstances. You
may think I’m a young preacher, but I’m not. I
have found out already that it’s only a man’s con-
science that can hurt him much. When he knows
he has done his duty, all the reprimands in the world
can’t do much harm. It’s when he knows he has
been unfaithful that such things make him sore.
“ We’ll not go in to see Andrew Carter to-night,”
Dave continued, “for we’re just a triﬂe late. Andrew
is the ﬁsherman who lives with his family in this
house, and a ﬁne old fellow he is. Many a cup of
good hot coffee he has made for us on cold stormy
nights.”
Tom would have been glad to see the inside of the
curious little house, but some other night would do
as well; and when they went out upon the beach
again they found a decided change in the weather.
Though it was still clear, with a few stars shining
and no moon, the wind had grown very strong. It
came in from the southeast in puffs and long sweeps;
and though it had been partially in their faces before


A WRECK 01v THE BAR. 81
and was now partially on their backs, they felt it
much more than in the outward trip.
“ That’s a weather-breeder ! ” Dave declared. “ We’ll
have an ugly night before we get through. This
southeast wind always grows, ’specially at this time
of year. It brings rain, too, and stirs up a big sea.”
On the return trip they saw nothing but a south-
bound steamship, far enough out to be perfectly safe;
but when they reached the station Dave reported her,
as it was his business to report every passing ship.
Almost immediately they set out for their second
walk to the point, and found the wind still rising.
It was in their faces now, and made walking hard
work.
That trip was exactly a repetition of the ﬁrst,
except that in the high wind they could not talk
much. Before they got back a drizzling rain had
begun to fall, so before they started on the third
and last trip Dave put on his “ilers,” as he called
his waterproof suit, and borrowed a similar suit for
Tom, who had none of his own.
By the time they made their last visit to the cabin
on the point, the rain was falling fast and the wind
was blowing a regular southeast gale. No mild
April weather about that! It felt cold as winter,
and Tom shivered through all his thicknesses of
clothes.
“ Now for the last tramp ! ” he shouted, —he had
to shout, to make himself heard in the wind. “ Won’t
I sleep, though, when I once touch the bed!”


82 THE BEACH PATROL.
“ Don’t be too sure about sleeping ! ” Dave shouted
back. “You never can tell what may happen in this
business.”
Tom might have felt more weary than ever—or
possibly the excitement might have made him forget
his fatigue— if he had known how many long hours
were to pass before he could take off his clothes.
They had gone more than half the way back to
the station, side by side, and were within about
three-quarters of a mile of rest and bed, when Dave
stopped suddenly and seized Tom’s arm with a tre-
mendous grip.
“See that!” he exclaimed, holding the lantern
behind him. “See that light; two lights. I make
her out a schooner, and she’s heading in.”
Tom looked with all his might, but all he could
see was two faint lights far out in the rain and
spray. The rest was all Greek to him, for he could
not have told whether the lights belonged to a
schooner or a ﬁshing-smack.
But he had no time to think. Dave was all in
motion before he stopped speaking; and while he
worked he watched.
“She’s struck!” he cried.
The wooden handle was out of its case, the Coston
signal was out of his pocket and slipped into the
end of the handle, and Dave gave the brass knob
a vicious blow with the palm of his right hand.
The result made Tom jump. They had been in
deep gloom before, with only the dim light of the


84 THE BEACH PA TROL.
“Jackets all!” he shouted, as he sprang down
the steps again and on down to the lower ﬂoor.
“Run out the boat!”
Tom followed, and found some of the men already
down. Others followed rapidly, and it seemed no
time at all till three or four lanterns were lighted,
and the big folding doors of the boat-room were
thrown open. Dave Ackerley was in by this time,
lending a hand.
The men were all putting on their “jackets,” the
big unwieldy life-preservers that fastened around the
body much like the ordinary life-preserver.
“I don’t want to put one of those things on,”
Tom found a chance to say to Ackerley. '“I can
swim better without it.”
“You must,” Ackerley replied; “it’s the rule.
Don’t stop to talk.”
The big jacket made Tom feel very awkward,
but he got it on in time to take hold of the long
rope with Captain Powers and three others. That
was the rope attached to the broad-wheeled truck on
which the boat was mounted. Turner and Water-
house stood behind to push. Every man was in
his place, but no man stirred till the order came.
“Give way all! ” the Captain shouted. “Give it
to her, boys! Out she goes! A-l-l t-o-g-e-t-h-e-r!”
and Tom could not help thinking, even in the midst
of the excitement, that that powerful voice and clear
head were worth half a dozen pairs of arms.
With the “ give way ” the boat started, and went


A WRECK 01v THE BAR. 85
out of the house with a rush; and by the time the
Captain reached-the long-drawn-out “all together,”
it was half-way across the soft sand lying between
the house and the hard beach. A dozen paces more,
and the truck was on the beach, where every rising
wave washed its wheels.
“Down she goes! ” was the next order; and with
the Captain at the stern and three men on a side,
the boat was run easily along on the rollers upon
which it rested, till one end tipped gently down to
the sand. Then the men eased down the other end,
and the truck was drawn out of the way.
The crew wore no “ilers,” for they knew that
within ﬁve minutes they would all be wet to the
skin. Every billow that came rushing in was
higher than their heads before it broke, and Tom
was anxious to see how they would operate the
boat to get it through those powerful breakers.
For more than half a minute they stood there,
three men on a side, waiting for the order. The
waves came piling in, but with a longer pause
always after the third wave. They waited for
that third and largest wave to pass them and leave
them standing knee-deep in water, and then, just
as it was on the point of receding, came the
“Now she goes!”
Every man put his weight to it, with the receding
wave to help them; and almost before Tom knew
it he was up to the breast in water, and the boat
was aﬂoat, and the Captain was standing in the


86 THE 05.40H PATROL.
stern with a great long oar in his hands. There
was a scramble then, and Tom followed the example
of the others and climbed in over the side and took
a seat and an oar. '
How they rushed at the work! Now that the
boat was aﬂoat, the problem was to have her under
control before the next big wave came, or it would
certainly drive her up on the beach and roll her
over. Every oar dropped into its place, and with
a “Give way!” from the Captain the ﬁrst power-
ful stroke was pulled, then the second.
Henry Turner pulled the stroke oar, and he knew
what he was doing. But before the next stroke the
big “third wave” struck them, and up went the
bow into the air. Up! up! till the boat seemed
to stand almost upright on its stern, and Tom
thought she was going to turn a complete somer-
sault. He was not far wrong in thinking so, either,
for more than one surf-boat has been thrown end
over end in such a sea. '
But as the wave continued on its course the stern
rose too, the bow fell back with a slap, and that
danger was passed. 
“Now give it to her, boys! ” the Captain shouted.
" Lay to it, Turner! Put the beef in your shoulders!”
It was the long, strong, surfman’s stroke they
pulled, those six dripping men, not the quick short
stroke of a man-of-war’s-man. Every time they
reached forward to the fullest extent, and every
stroke counted. Still the Captain stood in the


A WRECK 0/v THE BAR. 87
stern with his big steering oar, far better than any
rudder. They were beyond the breakers now, but
the water was dangerously rough for a small boat.
The whole space between the beach and the bar,
more than half a mile, was a sea of white foam.
At the risk of a poke in the back from the oar
behind him Tom ventured to turn his head for a
second, and he saw that the boat was heading direct
for the lights. And the next instant a shout from
the Captain almost froze the blood in his veins.
“ She’s gone!” he cried; “she’s capsized!”
“No,” he added, the next minute, “something
has stopped her. She has only settled with a bad
list to starboard. Now cheerily, boys! Cheerily!
We’ll have them off yet.”
The men answered with a shout and a great pull,
in both of which Tom had a part. He was a real
Life-Saver now, and he felt it! A real Life-Saver on
his very ﬁrst day, in the midst of danger with the
crew. What did he care for the soaking clothes or
the sore ribs! ,
For a time the water was a triﬂe smoother, when
they left the beach behind, but now as they approached
the bar it grew rougher again. Tom had heard of a
boat beiiig “tossed like a cork on the water,” and
now he found out just what that meant. Anything
lighter than one of the strong surf-boats would have
gone to pieces in a minute. The rain, the swirling
foam, and the darkness made the situation appalling.
“ Ease up! ” the Captain ordered, when they were


88 THE BEACH PATROL.
near enough to the schooner to give him a dim view
of her. “She’s in a bad way,” he went on, with both
eyes on the wreck. “A big list to starboard, and
the water breaking over her so I can hardly see the
deck. But I can see some men in the shrouds.
“ There’s no going alongside of her in this sea, in
my opinion,” he continued, a moment later. “ Look
at her, Henry Turner, and tell me what you think.”
Turner bent around and looked earnestly at the
wreck. -
“ No, sir!” he said; “ we’d stave our boat, and do
them no good. I think the shot-line is what we
need.”
Evidently the Captain thought so too; and having
made up his mind, he wasted no time. Even Tom
was sailor enough to see that in that rough water no
small boat could go up to the schooner’s side without
being crushed.
“ Back water! ” the Captain ordered. “Back her,
boys! back she goes! back, my hearties! Easy now!
Ease up ! ”
While he spoke he used his big oar to swing the
boat around and bring her into the lee of the schooner,
two or three hundred yards away, with the stern
nearest the wreck. '
Then the Captain began to work rapidly with some-
thing at his feet, and Tom saw, for the ﬁrst time,
that the mortar with its shot-line and ammunition
box had been put into the boat. The Captain was
preparing to ﬁre it.


90 THE BEACH PATROL.
It was not till they were outside of the schooner,
to windward of her, and out beyond the bar, out
where the sea was ﬁercer and angrier than ever, that
Tom understood fully what the Captain intended to
do.
“Hold her now! keep her steady!” the Captain
ordered; and in an instant he had pulled off his cork
jacket and made one end of the shot-line securely
fast to it.
Then Tom saw through it. ' The idea was to let
the wind drift the jacket and line down to the
schooner, and as soon as the wrecked men caught it
the crew would row ashore and fasten the whip-line
to the other end, to be drawn aboard the schooner.
After that would come the hawser, and then the
breeches buoy or perhaps the life-car.
“Steady now!” the Captain shouted, swinging
the jacket above his head, waiting for a favorable
time to throw it as far as he could toward the
schooner.
Tom held his breath in suspense, not suspecting
that he was to have an experience of his own before
the jacket was thrown. The boat was almost bal-
anced on the crest of a wave, the bow’ end hang-
ing over in the air, when a greater wave came and
struck it fairly under the bottom.
Up ﬂew the bow with a crash, and up ﬂew Tom
into the air, with nothing under him but the raging
water.
He had no idea what had happened, but in another


A WRECK ON THE BAR. 91
instant he was in the water, spluttering and grasping
for something that was not there.
Lucky for Tom that, though a young Life-Saver,
he was an old swimmer. In a moment he had his
senses about him, and looked around. On the one
hand were the lights of the life-saving boat, twenty
or thirty feet away. On the other hand, but ten
times as far, lay the schooner.


CHAPTER VI.
TOM SwIMS TO TIIE STRANDED YACHT.
CAPTAIN POWERS had seen such accidents
before, and he knew just what to do.
“Keep up, young Perry!” he shouted. “Keep
up, and I’ll throw you the line.”
That made Tom feel almost like laughing, wet and
cold and adrift as he was. “How could I do any-
thing else, I wonder! ” he said to himself, “ with a
bushel of cork strapped around me.”
The Captain threw the cork jacket with the line
attached, but that work was as uncertain as ﬁring
the mortar; perhaps a little worse, for the wind
caught up the light jacket and whirled it far over
Tom’s head, and then to one side, so that when it
touched the water it was between him and the
schooner, and far out of his reach.
Seeing the jacket in that position gave Tom a bold
idea. He felt a little sore over his situation, for such
an accident was a sign of inexperience in the service.
If he had been an older Life-Saver he would have
been braced for the shock, and could not have been
92


TOM SWIMS TO THE STRANDED YACHT. 93
thrown overboard. But here was a chance to re-
trieve himself and do some good work.
Finding that his own jacket ﬂoated him without
any exertion on his part, he put his hands to his
mouth and shouted toward the boat:
“I am going to carry the line to the schooner.
May I?”
But he got no answer. He could easily hear when
the Captain shouted, because the wind blew toward
him; but to make those in the boat hear him,
against the wind, was impossible.
“Well, they’ll see what I a1n doing,” he said to
himself, “ and if they don’t want me to go they will
order me back.”
Accordingly he struck out toward the jacket, and
reached it with about a dozen strong strokes. Then
he raised himself as high as he could, for he had two
ﬂoats now, and waved his arm toward the schooner.
Still there came no answer from the boat, and he
struck out boldly for the wreck; and Captain Powers
saw instantly what his new surfman was about, and
did not order him back.
“ He’s going to swim to the schooner! ” he shouted
to the men, “ and he’ll make it. He’s no greenhorn
in salt water, that boy.”
“ Ready all, now,” he continued. “ If Perry boards
the schooner safe, we’re bound for shore, to send off
the whip-line.”
The men were constantly pulling a few strokes, to
keep the boat from drifting too near the schooner;


94 THE BEACH PATROL.
but seeing Tom getting every moment nearer to the
wreck, they set up a shout of encouragement that
did him a world of good.
Meanwhile Tom had drawn up enough of the slack
of the line to make it fast around his waist, for he
must run no risk of losing the line. Wind and
waves hurried him along far faster than his own
strokes could have done, and in an incredibly short
time he was close up under the schooner.
That was when Captain Powers watched him anx-
iously, letting the boat drift down to keep him in
sight; for if Tom did not manage skilfully now, he
would certainly be dashed to pieces against the
vessel.
But Tom knew what he was about. With every
stroke he had veered himself a little to the south-
ward, to strike the schooner’s bow. He knew that
that was his only chance of getting aboard, climbing
up by the martingales and jib-boom braces and what-
ever ropes or chains he could ﬁnd.
A moment more and he had fast hold of the braces,
and two of the sailors on board had him in their
strong arms and drew him up. There came a cheer
from the boat, and he heard the Captain’s order:
“ Give way, now, lads! Give way! ”
The only safe place on deck was close up against
the port rail, with a sea of spray and water ﬂying
overhead; for the schooner’s bad list to starboard
raised the port side high.
“Where is the master?” Tom quickly asked.


96 THE BEACH PATROL.
the young girl’s face. Both persons sprang up in
astonishment at seeing a stranger in the cabin—and
such a wet stranger, in a cork jacket!
“ You are all right, sir,” he said to the gentleman.
“ We will have you safe on shore in ten minutes, as
soon as we get a hawser out to you. I am from the
Great Harbor Life-Saving Station. Don’t be at all
alarmed, miss. If you will just stay where you are
till I come for you, you are perfectly safe.”
It was like a recall from death to-life’ to this father
and daughter, for they were calmly awaiting their
last moment. The gentleman tried to seize Tom’s
arm, but he escaped and hurried back to the deck.
A fortunate thing it was for the young surfman
that he had heard the inspectors’ instructions only
a few hours before. “ When there are passengers on
a wreck,” they had taught him, “care for them ﬁrst.
Try to quiet their fears. Send the passengers ashore
ﬁrst, then the crew.”
“ We must have a lantern here, Captain,” Tom
asserted, when he was with the men again. “Keep
an eye on the shore, all hands, and let me know when
you see any signal.”
It was not long before the signal was seen—a
bright lantern on the beach, swung toward the
wreck; and Tom knew what that meant.
“Haul in on the line ! ” he ordered. “Pull with
a will, men! ”
But the men needed no urging. They were draw-
ing to themselves the means of safety, and they


TOM SWIMS To THE STRANDED YA cHT. 97
worked like beavers. In less than two minutes Tom
had the whip-line tackle in his hands.
“One double hitch around the foremast, Captain,
ten feet above the deck,” was his next order; and
he went along to see that it was done properly, at
the same time waving the lantern to show the crew
that he had the whip-line.
“ Now, men, let her have it ! Pull for your lives ! ”
He put the whip-line into their hands, knowing
that by this time the hawser had been made fast to
it. And how the men did haul! And what a shout
of joy there was when the end of the great hawser
came aboard !
“ That’s to be made fast two feet above the whip-
line, Captain,” Tom ordered; and he watched the
tying himself, for he would be held responsible if
anything went wrong.
Soon another signal was given from the beach,
and the men began to haul on the whip-line again.
Tom watched the hawser anxiously as far out as he
could see, expecting every moment to see the breeches
come aboard. But he was startled to see a big dark
object come travelling along the big rope.
They had sent out the life-car !
For the ﬁrst time since he was thrown from the
boat, he began to feel a little shaky. The breeches
buoy he was sure that he could handle; but did he
know enough about the life-car yet to risk the pas-
sengers’ lives in it under his management ?
However, he had little time for worry, for in an-


98 TH5 1:54 011 PA TROL. .
other moment the life-car was over their heads ; and
when two of the men sprang up and opened the
scuttle, Captain Powers climbed out of the car.
“ All ready here! ” the Captain exclaimed, with a
sharp look at the fastenings of the hawser and whip-
line, which he found to be shipshape. “Any passen-
gers on board, Perry ? ”
“Yes, sir; a lady and gentleman in the cabin,”
Tom answered.
“They will both have to be helped,” the yacht’s
Captain said. “ The owner has been sick and is very
weak.”
“ Come along, then ! ” Captain Powers cried; and
next minute he and Tom and the other Captain and
two of the men were in the cabin.
“ Now then, sir,” Captain Powers said to the owner,
“ the life-car is all ready. Clasp your arms right
around my neck, and I will carry you out to it. You
are in no danger now, and we will have you safe on
shore in about one minute. Bring the young lady,
Perry.”
The Captain picked up the owner as easily as he
would have picked up a baby, and started forward
with him. Tom felt inclined to hesitate about pick-
ing up a young lady in that way, but’ there was no
time to lose.
“ There’s no danger now, miss,” he said; “ hold on
to me tight. You will get a little wet on deck, but
that is all.”
It was no easy matter to carry those two passengers


TOM SWIMS TO THE STRANDED YACHT. 99
across the ﬂooded and slanting deck, over which
every sea continued to break. But there were plenty
of willing hands to help steady them, and the fore-
mast was reached in safety.
They had to take a few steps up the ratlines to
reach the level of the car, and both father and
daughter shrank back when they saw the coffin-like
box that they were to get into. Passengers are
always afraid of the life-car at ﬁrst, it looks so much
as if it might drown them or smother them.
“You get in there ﬁrst, Perry,” Captain Powers
ordered. “They will feel safer to have you along,
and I will send you ashore with them. We can
crowd three in on a pinch.”
Tom, to tell the truth, did not feel at all comfort-
able about the car himself. But after all his bold
orders it would never do for him to hesitate. He
climbed in and lay down ﬂat, and the yacht’s owner
followed. Then the girl was helped in; and before
they had time to think, the scuttle was shut down
and fastened, and they heard the order given:
“ Now all together, boys ! Away she goes! ”
The three in the car were perfectly helpless, shut
in the close damp box, with no light and little air,
sometimes buffeted by the wind, then dragged
through the towering waves. But in this unpleas-
ant situation Tom’s pluck did not desert him.
“We are as safe here as in a house,” he said.
“ Before you could count ﬁfty we shall be on shore.”
The gentleman began to say something, but he
I


100 Till? BEACH PATROL
was stopped by hearing voices outside; and the
car’s motion ceased.
“Here we are!” Tom exclaimed; “we’re on
shore.”
As if in proof of this, the scuttle was immediately
opened, and Henry Turner and Dave Ackerley began
to help the passengers out—the girl ﬁrst, the
gentleman next, and Tom last of all.
“Hello here, youngster!” Ackerley exclaimed,
giving Tom’s hand a terrible squeeze. “Good boy,
Perry!”
The gentleman and his daughter were holding
each other by the hand, silently looking into one
another’s moist eyes, too full of thankfulness for
their escape to ﬁnd words to express it.
“You take these passengers up to the station,
Perry, and make them as comfortable as you can,”
Turner ordered. “And try to get some dry clothes
on. You’ll ﬁnd you’re used up, as soon as you stop.
Now, men, off she goes again!”
By the time that Tom had take1| the girl and her
father to the station sitting-room, and drawn up
chairs for them before the stove, he found that Mr.
Turner was a good prophet. He could only let him-
self drop into another chair, stiff and sore and utterly
worn out. The cook brought them in some hot
coffee, but it was rest more than coffee that Tom
needed.
“If I were not so weak,” the gentleman said.
evidently speaking with difﬁculty, “so weak, I


TOM SWIMS TO THE STRANDED YACHT. IOI
should try to have some of my effects saved from the
yacht; some clothing, at any rate. But I—I—
There is no use of my trying to thank you to-night,
friend, for what you have done for us. My name is
Farnsworth; H. G. Farnsworth; and this is my
daughter Faith. Can’t you thank this brave man,
Faith, for what he has done for us?”
“I think he must know how we feel about it,
father,” Faith replied, “ without our saying a word.
If Mr.—Mr. —” '
(O Ah, Tom! you were a brave boy out among the
mbig billows, and in the dark life-car. But where is
p your bravery when this little lady holds out her
ghand for you to take?
“Tom Perry is my name, Miss Faith,” he said,
gblushing right up to the roots of his hair, but taking
gher outstretched hand. “I hope you won’t thank
jme at all, for my getting to the yacht was only an
§accident. If I had not been thrown out of the
:boat—”
Fortunately for Tom this embarrassing scene was
$cut short by the arrival of Captain Powers and two
"of the yacht’s crew.
Q “ That’s a strong vessel you have there,” he said to
gthe owner, taking oﬁ his cap and wringing the water
out of it. “She hasn’t opened a seam so far. If
this thing grows no worse, we may save your yacht
yet. The Captain and three men preferred to stay
on board; but the life-car is ready to bring them
ashore in case of further danger.”
PID


I02 THE BEACH PATROL.
“ I hope we may save her,” Mr. Farnsworth said,
still very weakly. “If there is any chance for her, I
wish you would have my Captain send a man up to
Atlantic City to telegraph for the coast wrecking
company.”
There was some further talk about saving the
yacht, and about bringing dry clothes ashore for Mr.
Farnsworth and his daughter, and Captain Powers
turned to go out.
“ I want you to go right oﬁ to bed, young Perry,”
he said. “You have had more than your share of
work to-day, and we have plenty of men now without
you. Any of the beds up stairs are at your service,
Mr. Farnsworth; and you can take possession of my
room, miss, and we will soon have some clothes
brought off for you.”
Tom considered that the hardest order he had
received since he joined the Life-Saving Service. To
be sent oﬁ to bed! with a wreck on the bar, and
wrecked passengers and crew at the station! But it
was an order, and he must obey. As to Mr. Farns-
worth and Miss Faith, they were too much excited
to think of sleep. But as Tom turned to the steep
stairs and found that it was all he could do to climb
them, so stiﬁ and sore he was, he saw that Captain
Powers knew best.
He would drop oﬁ to sleep in an instant, he was
sure; but he was very much mistaken about that.
Tom was excited as well as the Farnsworths, and
‘too tired to go to sleep.”


TOM SWIMS TO THE STRANDED YACHT. I03
“ How well that I didn’t write that letter to Aunt
Hannah!” he said to himself. “Now I’ll have
something to tell her that’s worth telling. It makes
my head swim to think of all the things that have
happened since I went to bed last! Well, I think I
wiped out the disgrace of falling overboard, anyhow.”
For half an hour or more he lay thinking of the
day’s events, quite unable, after all, to go to sleep.
At length he was driven to the old expedient of
counting—not counting sheep jumping a fence, as
he had sometimes done before, but counting men
climbing over the bows of a ship; wet men in cork
jackets and dripping clothes, and a small boat in the
distance with lights. After a while the procession
of these men grew longer than he could stand,. and
the thoughts turned into restless dreams of wrecks
and life-cars, and the dreams gave way to sound
slumber.
He might be sleeping there yet, he was so tired and
sore and the bed felt so good, if he had not been
awakened, hours afterward, by a hand laid gently
upon his shoulder. When he opened his eyes, the
sun was shining brightly into the room, and Mr.
Farnsworth was standing by his side.
“It was almost a shame to disturb you,” Mr.
Farnsworth said, “but this seemed such a good
opportunity to speak to you alone.”
“ I am afraid I have slept too long already,” Tom
replied. “What time is it, sir?”
“ It is a little after eleven o’clock in the morning,”


I04 THE BEA CH PA TR OL.
was the answer, “and you have slept about seven or
eight hours. I want to thank you for your great
service to my daughter and myself last night, Perry.
We had given ourselves up for lost on that wretched
bar. Such debts cannot be paid in money, but a
little money is always useful. I want you to take
this to remember me by till I can send you some-
thing more substantial.”
As he spoke he tried to press a roll of bills into
Tom’s hand.
“ Oh, no, sir! ” Tom exclaimed, drawing back his
hand. “ I couldn’t think of it, Mr. Farnsworth. It
is against the rules for us to accept any rewards, and
I couldn’t take one at any rate. I am just as much
obliged to you, but I can’t take it.”
“Oh, pshaw!” said Mr. Farnsworth; “don’t be
foolish about it. This is nothing at all. Not enough
even to pay you for the hard work you did, to say
nothing of the danger.”
“No, sir!” Tom replied very ﬁrmly. “Thank you
just as much; but please don’t ask me to take it.”
“ Well, you’re a funny fellow, as well as a brave
one!” Mr. Farnsworth laughed, putting the money
into his own pocket. “ You’ll not object to my tak-
ing down your name and address, at any rate, so that
I can ﬁnd you in the future?” —and he took out a
little notebook and pencil. “ Tom Perry?” he went
on; “ Thomas, I suppose. Great Harbor Life-Saving
Station. Very well. What is your father’s name,
Perry ?”


TOM SWIMS TO THE STRANDED YACHT. I05
“ His name was Thomas too, sir,” Tom answered;
“but he died a long time ago, when I was a small
boy.”
“ H’m ! ” Mr. Farnsworth exclaimed. “ Died about
here, I suppose? Somewhere in this neighbor-
hood ?”
“ No, sir,” Tom replied, wondering at the question.
“ He was out in the far West, engaged in mining, and
he died out there.”
“ H’m ! ” Mr. Farnsworth said again ; “h’m—h’m!
Yes, yes. Tom Perry; Tom Perry. Very well,
Perry; I must go now and see after my daughter.”
Tom thought that he went very abruptly, without
telling any news about the yacht or the weather-
or more particularly about Miss Faith. But he
sprang up and dressed, and when he turned to the
washstand he saw something that made him open his
eyes wide. The whole top of the stand was" littered
with brushes and combs and soap-cups and other
toilet articles made of heavy silver. There were
scent bottles and tooth powders, and more other
articles than Tom had ever seen or dreamed of.
And by the side of the stand was a large leather case
with handles, which seemed on the outside to be a
portmanteau; but it stood open, and the interior was
a dressing-case, equipped with razors and folding
mirrors, and pockets for all the things that had
been taken out.
“Mr. Farnsworth’s! ” Tom exclaimed. “ He must
have plenty of money, to own such handsome things


I06 THE BEACII PATROL.
—and a yacht, too. And he doesn’t seem to bothe1
much whether the yacht is saved or not.”
There was a wonderful change in everything when
he went down stairs. It was hard to believe that
that was the same beach, with the sun shining warm
upon it. and the big rollers no longer breaking
against it—the same beach that he had patrolled
the night before in darkness and storm. Thesea
was so much smoother that the big hawser and the
whip-line had been hauled ashore, and the surf-boat
was used instead of the life-car.
The cook had kept a cup of hot coffee for Tom,
and after drinking it he started for the shore to
report to Captain Powers. As he turned the corner
of the house he found Mr. Farnsworth and Faith
almost in front of him.
“ Oh, here is Mr. Perry, papa!” Faith exclaimed,
going up to Tom, and shaking hands with him.
Evidently she did not know of her father’s visit to
him in bed. “Why, you are limping!” she went on.
“ I hope you did not hurt yourself last night.”
"Tom was a little confused again, and rather angry
at himself for being so foolish. He could hardly
believe that this pretty young lady was thelittle
white-faced girl he had carried to the life-car. But
it was no wonder, he thought, that he had carried
her so easily, she was so slender and light, and not
very tall. About ﬁfteen, he thought she must be.
And in the brown cloth gown, that had been brought
her from the yacht, and a brown hat, and her thick


TOM SWIMS TO THE STRANDED YACHT. I07
brown hair ﬂowing loosely down her back, and color
in her cheeks now, he would have called her “a
study in brown,” if he had been an artist instead of
a Life-Saver.
“ Oh, it is nothing, Miss Farnsworth,” he replied ;
“just the result of a long walk I took last night and
getting wet afterwards, I suppose. But nobody will
know who you mean, if you call me Mr. Perry.
Every one calls me Tom; and I hope you will, too.”
“ Very well, Tom,” and Faith looked from him to
her father and laughed. “And my name is Faith;
so that’s a bargain. Do you see how easy the Bar-
racouta is lying? They say she is damaged very
little; and we expect the wrecking tugs here this
afternoon to pull her off the bar. They have been
telegraphed for.”
“That must be very expensive work,” Tom sug-
gested.
“Don’t let that worry you,” Mr. Farnsworth said,
smiling. “I keep the yacht well insured, so the com-
panies have to pay most of the expense.”
These were things that Tom knew nothing about,
—the wrecking tugs and the marine insurance com-
panies,—and he thought it best to tell his new
friends at once what a short time he had been in
the service, to avoid future complications.
“ Only since yesterday!” Mr. Farnsworth ex-
claimed. “Well, you have made a brave start, Perry
—or Tom, if you insist upon being Tommed. You
see there are companies that make a business of get,


108 THE BEA CH PA TROL.
ting off stranded vessels, or giving whatever assist-
ance is needed. They keep powerful ocean tugs
always ready, and in such a case as this we tele-
graph them, and they send the tugs at once and
pull the vessel oﬁ, and take her into port for repairs.
Their marine insurance is very much like ﬁre insur-
ance, only it insures a vessel and its contents against
damage by being wrecked or stranded or sunk, as
well as against ﬁre.”
Captain Powers stepped up at this moment, on his
way from the beach to the house, and saw Tom for
the ﬁrst time since he sent him to bed.
“ Oh, you are out again, are you, young Perry?”
he said. “ I want you to look after our guests, to-
day. See that they have everything they want, as
far as you can.”
Nothing could have suited Tom better than this
work; but unfortunately it was not destined to last
long. By three o’clock the wrecking tugs arrived,
and pulling a small schooner yacht off the bar was
hardly more than play for them. Mr. Farnsworth
had sent to Atlantic City for a carriage; and by a
little after four, he and Faith had driven away, the
yacht was on its way up the coast in tow of the tugs,
and the station had settled down to its routine work
again.
While Tom was in the sitting-room just before
supper he heard a call from up stairs, evidently in
Dave Ackerley’s voice.
“ What is it ? ” he asked.


TOM SWIMS TO THE STRANDED YACHT. I09
“ Come up here,” Dave answered.
He hurried up the stairs, and found Ackerley in
front of the wash-stand.
“ Look at all these silver things—brushes, and all
sorts of traps. They must belong to Mr. Farnsworth,
and I suppose he has forgotten to take them with
him.”
There, sure enough, lay Mr. Farnsworth’s hand-
some toilet articles, just as he had left them.
Tom picked up the leather case, intending to pack
the articles in it, and saw a new card tied to one of
the handles, with several lines of writing upon it.
“ ‘As the Life-Savers are not permitted to receive
presents,’ ” he read aloud from the card, “ ‘ Mr. Farns-
worth merely neglects to take this case with him.
To be used by the Captain and crew till called for.’ ”
So by the stranding of the Barracouta, the Great
Harbor Life-Saving Station became possessed of a
handsome silver toilet set.


CHAPTER VII.
A MYSTERIOUS LETTER.
“ YOU’RE the freshest fellow to be in the Life-
Saving Service I ever did see.” "
Tom and “Wax” Hoover happened to be alone
together in the big sleeping-room a day or two after
the stranding, when Wax made this complimentary
remark.
“It’s a good thing there ain’t no cows on the
beach,” he went on. “ They’d eat you for a cabbage
head, sure.”
Wax might have said almost anything else, and
Tom would have paid very little attention to it; but
where is the boy who likes to be called “fresh ”?
“You were a precious big fool to swim over to
that schooner,” Wax continued, “and risk your life
for nothing. You’d know better if you’d been in
the service as long as I have.”
“ I don’t think that I risked my life at all,” Tom
answered. “How could a man drown with one of
those cork jackets on ? ”
“Drown? No!” Wax retorted; “of course you
wouldn’t drown. But don’t you know it was just
IIO


A MI/STERIOUS LETTER. III
nip and tuck whether you got your brains knocked
out against the side of the schooner or not? Wanted
to make yourself solid with Captain Powers, I
s’pose.” -
“ That would have been a very good reason for do-
ing it,” Tom answered, trying to keep cool. “I do
want to make myself solid with the Captain, because
I want to work here. But I did not think of that
when I started for the schooner. I thought of the
people on board of her, who were in danger, for one
thing. And for another thing, I was mad at myself
for being knocked overboard, and wanted to make
up for it. Anyhow, I got there, Wax.”
“Yes, and much good it will do you!” Wax
sneered. “ If you’d heard what Captain Powers said
about you when you started without orders, you
wouldn’t feel so good over it.”
This was Wax’s second attempt to make Tom feel
uncomfortable, and he succeeded again. What could
the Captain have said about him? And was he pro-
voked? He knew that he could not depend upon
what Wax said, yet he could not help feeling a
little uneasy about it. But he wisely made no
reply.
Tom’s errand in the room was to get a pad out of
his chest, and a few minutes later he was down in
the sitting-room writing a letter; for it was his
“watch below,” as the crew, like the sailors, call the
time when they are not on duty. Captain Powers
was there too, writing up his log-book. Presently


I12 THE BEACH PATROL.
he closed the book with a sigh of relief, and looked
across at Tom, with a comical expression on his face.
“Another letter to your aunt, young Perry?” he
asked. “You must be in love with that aunt.”
“I am, sir,” Tom answered, smiling. “ I had so
many things to tell her that I couldn’t get them all
into the ﬁrst letter, so I have to write another.”
“ Well, draw it mild, young man,” the Captain
went on. “ If you give too strong a description of
your boarding the wreck the other night, she may get
frightened and come down here and lead you home
by the ear, and I don’t want her to do that. You
did a good piece of work for us, and I think you are
going to make a good surfman. You can tell her I
say so, if you like.”
“Thank you, sir! ” Tom replied. He would have
said more, but this praise was such a surprise to him
that he felt a little trembly. It was such a complete
refutation of what Wax Hoover had just been tell-
ing him!
A nice quiet place to write a letter, one might
think a Life-Saving Station to be. But Tom found
it just the opposite. In his ﬁrst letter he had been
interrupted half a dozen times; and now before he
had ﬁnished the second page he was interrupted
again. He heard some one walking rapidly through
the big boat-room, and in a moment the door opened
and a stranger entered hurriedly.
“El Capitan?” the newcomer asked, with a strong
foreign accent. “ Capitan Powers?”


A MYSTERIOUS LETTER. II3
It was easy to see that the stranger was a Cuban.
He was short and slight and very dark, and wore
the tiny Cuban boots with high narrow heels.
“ Yes, sir, I am Captain Powers,” the Captain an-
swered, getting up and stepping toward him.
“El vapor!” the stranger exclaimed, in his haste
using the Spanish word. “ The steamaire,” he cor-
rected himself. “She is coming vaire fast. She is
in sight now. I would have her—what you call it?
Signalled! I will pay ﬁfty dollars to have her
signalled! ”
“You can’t pay anything here,” the Captain re-
plied; “but if it is a proper message, I will signal
her for nothing. What steamer is it ?”
“El C/iudad de Vashington,” the stranger said—
“the City of Washington.”
“Oh! the Ward liner, bound for Havana,” the
Captain explained. “I can’t stop her, you know.
What do you want to say to her ? ”
Instead of answering in words the Cuban took a
note-book and pencil from his pocket and wrote a
brief message, afterward tearing out the page and
handing it to the Captain.
“ Yes, I will send that, if she is not too far out,”
the Captain said, after reading the message. And
he picked up his marine glasses and went outside to
look at the steamer, followed by the Cuban.
“Plenty of time,” he was saying, when they re-
turned to the room. “ She will not be abeam of us
for ten or ﬁfteen minutes yet.”


I14 THE BEACH PATROL.
While the Captain waited for the steamer to ap-
proach, the stranger explained that his partner was
among the passengers, and that ﬁve minutes after
the steamer sailed from New York he had received
some information which it was very important for
his partner to have. But it was too late then to
catch him, and the only chance was to head the
steamer off and have her signalled from some Life-
Saving Station. So he immediately took a train for
Atlantic City, and ﬁnding the vessel already in sight
he hired a horse there and rode furiously down to the
Great Harbor Station. Captain Powers seemed to
think this nothing strange ; he was used to such cases.
“ Tell Mr. Turner to get the mortar out and ﬁre a
shot when the steamer is near enough, Perry,” he
said; and he went up the stairs, followed again by
the Cuban.
Tom found Henry Turner in the boat-room and
gave him the Captain’s order, and helped carry out
the mortar. The steamship was not quite abeam of
the station when the shot was ﬁred, and so far out
that Tom could barely distinguish her two masts and
her funnel.
Immediately after the ﬁring of the shot the steamer
blew two blasts on her whistle, as Tom could tell by
the puffs of steam, though he could barely hear the
sound. He ran down toward the beach, where he
could see the signal pole, for he was curious to see a
man on shore talk to a steamship that was more
than a mile away.
~?_


. A MYSTERIOUS LETTER. H5
There were three ﬂags on the station’s pole, one
under the other. On the top ﬂag was a big letter I,
on the second a letter C, and on the third a D.
That I C D said to the steamer, “Attention!”
And when the steamer blew two whistles she said:
“ We see your signal. What do you want ? ”
The ship was abreast of the station by this time,
and slowed down so that she was barely moving; and
Captain Powers began to change his ﬂags so rapidly
that Tom could hardly keep track of them. Some-
times there was only one ﬂag on the staﬁ, sometimes
there were two, sometimes three, and sometimes four,
each ﬂag bearing a different letter; and he noticed
that every time a new ﬂag was hoisted a ﬂag was run
up on the steamer and immediately lowered, as if to
say: “ All right; go ahead.”
As every letter or combination of letters was an
arbitrary sign, Tom of course could make no sense
out of the message, except once when the letters
spelled out the name Miguel Fabal, and again when
they spelled Rafael Estravo. At length came what
was evidently the last signal, for instead of hoisting
her own ﬂag after it, the steamer gave two more
blasts on her whistle, and immediately started on her
way again.
Those last whistles said: “ All right. We have
your message. ‘Good by.”
“ Could you make it out?” Tom asked Mr. Turner;
for he, too, had been out where he could see the pole,
after ﬁring the gun.


1I6 THE 315.40H PATROL.
“Not without the signal book,” Mr. Turner an-
swered, “and Captain Powers has that with him.
We use what they call the ‘ International Code,’ and
every letter or combination means something differ-
ent. The letters and their meanings are all set down
in the signal book in every language you can think
of, so it is very easy to read them when you have
the book. We have a signal book in every Life-
Saving Station, and no ship ever goes to sea without
one, no matter what nation she belongs to. That is
the way ships talk to each other at sea ; and a German
and a Russian can understand each other by it as
well as two Americans.”
When the Captain and the Cuban came down stairs
again, Tom learned from their conversation that the
message was only about private business affairs, and
of no interest to any one but the Cuban and his
partner. It was not the message, but the method of
sending it, that was the surprising thing. It was a
new idea to the young surfman that word could
be sent to a passing steamer anywhere along the
coast; and when he returned to his writing, the sig-
nalling made an important part of his letter to Aunt
Hannah.
He began to think that in his ﬁrst few days in the
service he had had the good fortune to see almost all
the operations of a Life-Saving Crew; and he knew
how unusual that was, for he had learned from the
men’s talk that they often went not only for weeks,
but for months, without a single incident to break


118 TH5 5540H PATROL.
as he ever would make to himself ; “ it teaches a chap
to appreciate a good home when he has one. Won’t
I enjoy it, though, when I get back to Way’s Landing
in the summer! But it’s a jolly good place here, and
I wouldn’t give it up for anything else I know of.”
There was always the knowledge that any moment
the crew might be needed. They might be gathered
ever so quietly around the sitting-room lamp, and
within ﬁve minutes they might be out in the surf-
boat, or dragging her along the beach. And occa-
sionally there were more gentle breaks in the mo-
notony than going out to a wreck. The patrolmen
from the Absecon Station, the next Station to the
north, met the Atlantic City patrolmen every day on
the one side and the Great Harbor patrolmen on the
other. In this way letters for any of the Great Har-
bor Crew were brought from the Atlantic City post
office and passed along from hand to hand till they
reached the station. The arrival of the ﬁrst patrol-
man of the evening from the north always made a
little stir, for he never came without some news-
papers, and occasionally he brought a letter or two.
The arrival of the mail made a pleasant break,
and gave the Life-Savers a chance for a little laugh-
ing and joking. Ezra Waterhouse and Myron Haw-
thorn were two as solemn-faced men as could be
found anywhere, but even they relaxed when the
early-evening patrolman came in with the letters
and papers.
One evening when Henry Turner had the north


I20 THE BEACH PATROL.
rest, no more would have been said about it. As
soon as Ackerley saw that it teased him, however,
his love of joking led him on to tease him further.
“Of course she would write,” Dave continued. “I
know how it goes. She tells him in this letter that
he saved her from a watery grave, a triﬂing service
that she never, never, never can forget. And she is
coming down here in the summer to take him out
sailing in papa’s yacht. It was a most romantic
thing.”
“She certainly was in his arms before he had
known her half an hour,” the Captain said, smil-
ing. And even Waterhouse and Hawthorn and Wax
Hoover had to crack their little jokes.
Tom felt like escaping to the attic bedroom; but
he had his wits about him by this time, and would
not run away. He calmly cut open the envelope,
and pretended to read from the letter while he re-
plied to the jokes at his expense. He knew the
letter was from his aunt, but he would not say so
again.
“Why, how did you know this was from Miss
Farnsworth, Dave?” he asked, just as if it really had
been. “You must be able to read through an en-
velope. She says they were so nicely treated here at
the station” (he pretended to read from the letter),
“and all the crew were so kind, that her papa intends
to send a pair of rubber boots to each man. But he
cannot ﬁnd any in New York nearly large enough,
so he is having them built to order in a dry dock.


A MYSTERIOUS LETTER. I21
And—and—what’s this? Two of the men par-
ticularly she took a great liking to; one named
Dave something, and the other called Turner. They
were such nice, fatherly old men, only the bristles
on their faces reminded her of blacking-brushes.”
“You’d better let the boy alone, Ackerley,” the
Captain laughed; and when the Captain laughed of
course all the rest laughed, as in duty bound; and
Tom saw how much better it was to joke with them,
even about himself, than to ﬂare up and show that
he disliked it.
This gave him a chance to read his letter in peace,
and he was glad of it; for there was an inclosure
that excited his curiosity. His aunt’s letter was
much like the others she had sent him, written hur-
riedly on an old sheet of paper, full of loving expres-
sions and assertions of her loneliness without him.
But on the last page she said:
“ Inclosed I send you a letter that came yesterday,
from some lawyer in New York that I never heard
of before. I think it is a very mysterious letter, and
I do not know whether it ought to be answered or
not. But as it is all about you and your dear father,
Isend it to you, and you can do as you think best
about it.”
When Tom turned to the inclosure and read it, he
quite agreed with his aunt that it was a very myste-
rious letter. Even the paper and styles of printing
and writing seemed mysterious to him, for he had
never before seen a letter from a busy city lawyer’s


I22 THE BEACH PATROL.
office; and the best of surfmen often know little
about the mysteries of stenography and typewrit-
ing.
“TAYLOR & TILLFORTH,
“Attorneys and Counsellors at Law,
“Equrrnarn Bu11.1:-mo, NEW Youx, April . . . ’
So the letter began; but that part was engraved
in handsome text, with many ﬂourishes. Then the
real letter started, written on a typewriter:
MISS HANNAH PERRY, Way’s Landing, N .J .:
Dear llladam: We write you on behalf of a client, whose
name we are not at liberty to mention, in regard to one Thomas
Perry, who died in the northwestern part of this country,
some years ago. This Thomas Perry is supposed to have been
your brother.
The distinct questions which we desire to ask, and which
our client begs you will be good enough to answer, are these:
In what state and town did your brother die, and when ?'
Was he interested in mining? "
Did he leave any mining stocks on his decease ?
Is the boy, Thomas Perry, now connected with the Life-
Saving Service, a son of your brother ? And did your brother
leave a widow, or any other children ?
We are aware that these are very unusual questions; but
your answering them without reserve may prove of such bene-
ﬁt to the heirs of Thomas Perry that we trust you may feel at
liberty to do so.
We are, madam, with great respect,
Yours, etc.,
TAYLOR & Trnnrozvrn.
Dictated by R. H. T. to E. W.


A IIIYSTERIOUS LETTER. I23
After reading this carefully, three or four times,
Tom was satisﬁed that it was the most mysterious
document he had ever seen or heard of. It was
strange enough that some 11IlkIlOwl1 person, whose
name the lawyers “ were not at liberty to mention,”
should be making inquiries about him and his father.
But that was not all. When he read the letter he
read it all, from cutwater to rudderpost ; and the last
few words, down in one corner, were the most puz-
zling of all.
“ Dictated by R. H. T. to E. W.” Now what could
that mean? Was it some half-hidden trap by which
city lawyers caught the unwary? Who could R. H. T.
and E. W. be? And why should one of them dictate
to the other.
Suddenly it occurred to him that R. H. T., if the
R. were left off, would stand for Henry Turner. Pos-
sibly Turner might have a ﬁrst name that he had
never heard; Robert Henry Turner, for instance.
And having evolved this much from his puzzled brain,
it was easy to see that the E. W. might stand for
Ezra Waterhouse. Could these two, he wondered,
be making inquiries about him? He might in his
innocence of city oﬁice methods have asked these two
what they knew about the letter, if Dave Ackerley
had not, fortunately, begun to crack more jokes.
“What did I tell you about that letter of Tom
Perry’s?” he asked, looking slyly at Waterhouse.
“Do you see that fancy-looking paper that came
inside of it? That’s a bank draft. Miss Farns-


I24 THE BEACH PATROL.
worth’s papa has sent him a draft on a sand bank
for swimming out to his yacht. Ain’t you going to
divide up, Perry ? ”
“ You shall have your share, anyhow, Dave,” Tom
answered, very good naturedly. He was too busy
now wondering about the letter to care how much
they joked at his expense. '
He sat up later than usual that night to answer
his aunt’s letter immediately; and what he wrote
showed that he had as good sound sense as any of
the lawyers or their clerks who would have laughed
at his ignorance about the initials on the letter.
“ I am very glad you sent me the lawyer’s letter,”
he wrote; “though it puzzles me as much as it did
you. There are some questions in it about places
and dates that I could not answer without seeing you
ﬁrst, and anyhow I think we ought to talk it over
before we answer it at all. It is so nearly time now
for me to go home for the summer vacation, that I
guess the lawyer can wait till we see each other.”
When he thought of the coming vacation, on that
night and subsequent nights of the breaking up for
nearly three months of the pleasant little family on
the beach, he could hardly tell whether to feel glad
or sorry. To be sure, he was only on trial, and he
might not have a chance to come back when the
station was reopened in August. But he was sure
the Captain had been satisﬁed with his work, and he
had great hopes.
All doubt on that score was set at rest a day or


126 THE BEA cﬁ PA TROL.
this without understanding it. I have thought it
over, and I do not see anything that I could do
better in. So many people want to make a living
with their heads, that it leaves all the better chance
for those who can work with their hands.”
“But you don’t want to be a surfman all your
life?” the Captain asked. ,
“It is noble work, and I should not be at all
ashamed of it, sir,” Tom replied, with great loyalty
to the service. “If I know enough, I may after
a while get into something that pays better. You
see I don’t know much about my head yet, Captain;
but I feel pretty sure of my hands andarms.”
“ Why, you’re quite a young philosopher, Perry! ”
the Captain laughed. “And I think you’re right,
too. A man who can work with his hands is always
independent, no matter what happens. If I had a
boy, he should learn some trade, even if I had a
million dollars to leave him. Very well, then, I’ll
expect you back with us on the 15th of August.”
The Captain swung around and returned to the
station, and Tom straightened himself up till his
lantern swung three inches higher above the sand.
He was no mere substitute now, but a real Life-
Saver.


128 - THE 55.40H PATROL.
waving a hand at him, and then Tom knew that
it was Aunt Hannah; and before he had time to
think, a member of the U. S. Life-Saving Service
was being violently hugged and kissed in the busiest
street of Way’s Landing.
“Oh, my dear, dear boy! I was so afraid that
something would happen before you ever got home
again. I was just worried to death to think of your
coming in the cars; they have so many accidents.”
It did not occur to him to wonder why an aunt
should let him battle with the angry waves without
ﬂinching, and yet tremble when he made a very safe
journey in the cars. Any Way’s Landing mother
would have felt the same about it. They are famil-
iar with the sea, but the cars are strangers.
“Ten whole weeks ‘now, Aunty!” Tom declared.
“Ten weeks with my old aunty before I go back to
the beach. And I am to go back; I haven’t had a
chance to tell you that, but it’s all settled."
“Then don’t let’s waste any of the time!” she
laughed, starting along and almost dragging Tom
with her. “We must make every minute count.
I’ve killed something better than the fatted calf for
you, and that’s one of my best Brahma pullets. And
you shall lie in bed every morning, Tom, and I’1l
bring your breakfast in to you.”
“ Yes, that’s the way we do at the station,” Tom
replied, looking very sober. They were in the house
by this time, and Aunt Hannah was sitting in his
lap. “We seldom get up before noon, so the cook


THE “BARRACOUTA” STARTS 0.v A CRUISE. 129
brings up our breakfast about nine, and takes our
boots down and blacks them, and then brings up the
warm shaving-water and the morning paper.”
“Do you!” Miss Hannah exclaimed. Evidently
she hardly knew whether Tom was joking or not.
“Do we!” he answered, with a kiss; “hardly!
We’re lucky to get any breakfast when we go down
stairs after it, and the paper is two days old when it
reaches the station. We don’t get much in the habit
of lying in bed in the Life-Saving Service. If you
hear me walking about at night, you mustn’t mind.
I expect I’ll have to walk around the big pond every
other night, when it’s my watch on patrol. I’m so
used to walking the beach, you know.”
Enough was said on each side to ﬁll the remainder
of this volume ; and doubtless there would have
been enough for the next, if Miss Hannah had not
remembered that the pullet was on the stove, and
likely to burn. She ran oﬁ in haste, and Tom fol-
lowed, and went, not only into the dear old kitchen,
but all over the house, to see how things looked. It
was not a very long walk, to be sure ; but he had to
stop so often to see the little changes that had been
made.
That evening Tom had to tell the story of the
stranded Barracouta over again, and all about the
inspectors and his long walks on the beach, and how
they talked to a passing steamer. They talked over
the mysterious letter from the New York lawyers,
too, and decided that it could do no harm, at any


130 T115 BEACH PATROL.
rate, to answer it. So Aunt Hannah told Tom the
dates, and names of places that he did not know, and
the answer was ready for the next morning’s mail.
There was only one point of difference between
them in those happy early days of the summer holi-
day. Aunt Hannah wanted her boy all to herself,
every day and every evening, to wait upon him and
pet him as she thought a brave young Life-Saver
ought to be petted in his brief holiday. But Tom
was not satisﬁed to be waited upon and petted. He
was used to hard work now, and he did not want to
lose all that time. He wanted to ﬁnd some tempo-
rary work in VVay’s Landing, so that the hundred
dollars, nearly, that he had saved so far, might be
increased instead of diminished. This subject was
so frequently discussed that they could not help men-
tioning it to Judge Naylor, when the Judge dropped
in to congratulate Tom on his success as a Life-Saver.
“And the foolish boy wants to go to work at some-
thing this summer, Judge,” Aunt Hannah exclaimed.
“ Don’t you think, as I do, that he ought to have a
good rest before he goes to begin the long winter’s
work ? ”
“ Why, it seems to me,” the Judge answered,
“ that it would be well for him to do a little studying
this summer. It won’t do for you to give up your
studies entirely, Tom. If you do, you will be a
beach patrolman all your life, with no chance of
working ahead. You must keep on learning.”
“I try to do that anyhow, sir,” Tom replied. “I


THE “BARRACOUTA” STARTS ON A CRUISE. I31
have learned a good many things lately that I could
not have learned in school. And I want to be mak-
ing some money.”
“ But you don’t want to be a hand worker all your
life, do you?” the Judge asked. “If you keep on
with your studies, you can work with your head after
a while, and make more money.”
“ No, sir, I think that question is settled for me,”
Tom said decidedly. “I have begun to work with
my hands, and it is just the kind of work I like.
If I am good for anything, I can push ahead with
my hands better than I ever could with my head.”
“Just like Tom Perry!” the Judge laughed.
“And I am inclined to think you are right, Tom.
If this is the work you like, stick to it; and we
can trust you to make your way.”
Miss Hannah, however, would not give up so
easily, and they had many a long and earnest argu-
ment over it; all of which they might have saved
themselves if they had only known, for the question
was soon to be settled in a way that neither of them
suspected.
Tom had been home a little more than a week,
and came in one day from a walk about the old
mills and the shipyard, to be met in the hall by
his aunt with a warning ﬁnger raised.
“There’s some one here to see you, Tom,” she
said, speaking in a lower tone than usual; “in
the parlor. A gentleman and a young girl; and
it’s the man that runs the yacht you swam out to.”


THE “BARRACOUTA” STARTS ON A CRUISE. I33
“Well, that’s about the truth of it,” Mr. Farns-
worth went on. “And one of the things that she
has almost lost her faith in is the Barracouta,
since that night on the bar. We took the yacht
to Philadelphia and had her put in prime order
again, and now in this ﬁne weather I propose to
make a run down the coast to Charleston, before
we start on a longer cruise. But what does Faith
do but show the white feather at the last minute,
and say that she’s afraid of the sea, and afraid of
the Barracoutal ”
“Well, I have reason to be,” Faith interrupted
again. “ If it hadn’t been for Tom, we’d both have
been drowned on that dreadful bar.”
“My nephew, Mr. Perry,” Aunt Hannah broke
in, with great emphasis on the “ Mr. Perry,” “ was
fortunate to be able to render you such a service.”
This was said in a tone that was meant to be deeply
sarcastic.
“Well, the short of it is, Tom,” Mr. Farnsworth
continued, taking no notice of Miss Hannah’s curt
manner, “she refused to go on board at all, till I
thought of a way to coax her. ‘You think that
young Perry,’ I told her, ‘is the greatest seaman
in the world. Suppose we get him on board the
yacht; make him third mate, or something, for
this voyage? Would you be afraid then?’
“You ought to have seen how her tune changed
then,” he went on. “ ‘ Not a bit ! ’ she cried. ‘ Oh,
if you can get Tom on board, I’ll not be afraid to go


134 THE BEACH PATROL.
anywhere in the world on the yacht.’ So what do
you say to that, Mr. Tom Perry?” .
“It can’t be done! ” Miss Hannah snapped, beat-
ing the ﬂoor with the soles of her shoes; “I need
my nephew here till he goes back to the beach.”
“But it is only for a little pleasure trip, Miss
Perry,” Mr. Farnsworth urged. “I cannot offer
him as good pay as he gets, in the Life-Saving
Service, for that would be unjust to the rest of
the crew. But I can give him forty dollars a
month, and of course he will have no board to
pay.”
“I think it’s too bad!” Miss Hannah exclaimed;
and Tom was frightened to see the storm rising;
“just too bad that people can’t let me alone when
I’ve got my boy back again for a few weeks! Here
I’m a poor lone woman, and what little I have you
want to come and take away from me! ”
She was working herself to a higher pitch every
moment, and something unpleasant might have hap-
pened if that greatest paciﬁer in the world, a pretty
little girl, had not stepped forward.
“Now don’t say that he can’t go with us; please
don’t say that ;” and Faith had one arm around
Miss Hannah’s neck, and with the other hand she
stroked the hair back on her brow. “We’d feel
so safe to have him on board the yacht.”
All this was very embarrassing for Tom, and he
hardly knew what to say; but he was delighted to
see that Faith’s pleading had great effect upon his


THE “BARRACOUTA” STARTS ON A CRUISE. I35
aunt. She dropped her angry tone at once, and
began to argue the point in a more reasonable way.
And Tom took a hand in the argument too; and
strangely enough he sided against his aunt, and
with the strangers, for he was anxious to accept
the oﬁer.
“ He was looking for work,” he argued, “ and here
it was offered to him—just the kind of work he liked
best. And he could be making a little more money,
instead of spending all the time.”
It took several hours to settle this momentous
question; but in the end Miss Hannah gave in, and
Tom promised to be on board the yacht in New York
harbor on the following Tuesday. ‘
But here was another sticking point for Aunt
Hannah. New York! Her boy go to New York
alone, to be run down by cable cars, and robbed by
pickpockets, and lost in the streets, perhaps murdered
and thrown overboard 1 She would not hear of that.
However, Mr. Farnsworth gave him plain directions
for reaching Jersey City, and promised to meet him
there and take him over to the yacht, which lay in
the East River.
So ended all the great plans for the summer holi-
day, as far as Way’s Landing was concerned. No
sails on the pond, no ﬁshing trips up or down the
river, no visits to the shipyard or to Teaberry Island.
The days fairly ﬂew now, and Aunt Hannah was
busy “putting his clothes to rights,” as she called it.
Tom was no more fond of saying good bys than


136 THE BEACH PA TR oz.
most boys; and there was another little matter to be
attended to at the last moment, when it would be too
late for his aunt to object. He had said nothing to
her about her own affairs.
“Now good by, Aunty,” he said for the third or
fourth time, when the train was just on the verge of
starting. “ There’s one thing I want you to do for
me while I’m away—or rather not to do. I don’t
want you to do a stitch of sewing for anybody; not
for anybody at all. I’ve left a little something in
the lower part of the clock, so you won’t have to.
Don’t forget to get it out and use it.”
When Miss Hannah opened the clock, half an hour
later, and found there seventy-ﬁve dollars of Tom’s
savings that he had left for her use, she sat down
and cried. And Tom by that time was whirling
through the pine woods of South Jersey, without a
sign of a tear anywhere about his eyes.
It did not occur to him that there was anything
to shed tears about. He was starting off in life in
earnest now, going out into that big world that he
had read of, and heard people talk about, but had
never seen. And the making his way in the big
world lay all with himself, and he intended to do it.
He was full of high hopes and great expectations and
youthful spirits, while the poor old aunty sat in her
lonely room, weeping. So it has ever been since the
beginning of the world,'and so it will be till the
end of time. Mothers must weep when their boys
leave them; but there is compensating joy when


THE “BARRACOUTA” STARTS ON A CRUISE. I37
the boys come back with full purses and good
hearts.
“Winslow Junction!” the brakeman called; and
Tom knew that he must change cars there. Then
after a long time came “ Monmouth Junction,” and
in a jiffy his train was on the main line of the Penn-
sylvania railroad, the like of which he had neither
seen nor dreamed of. Such smooth tracks, and so
many of them! And so many trains whirling by!
For the next two hours he thought every few minutes
that he was in New York, he went through so many
large towns. Elizabeth was the biggest city he had
ever seen, up to that moment. Then came Newark,
which was much bigger. And then, as the train
crossed the salt meadows, he saw far away, towering
heaps of masonry, like buildings piled one on top of
another, the highest taller than the tall church
steeples. That was New York at last!
Mr. Farnsworth and Faith were on the station plat-
form, waiting for him, but he did not see how they ever
found him in such a crowd! They crossed the Hudson
River on a big ferryboat that interested him very
much, but he had little to say till they were actually in
New York, standing on the edge of busy West Street.
“ Is there a Life-Saving Station anywhere along
here?” Tom asked Mr. Farnsworth, as he stood for
a moment looking at the endless stream of trucks
and cars and people.
“Not that I know of,” Mr. Farnsworth replied.
“ \Vhy? Not feeling homesick, are you?”


138 THE BEA c/1 PA TR 0L.
“Oh, no, sir,” Tom answered. “I just thought
if we had to cross this street, the safest way would
be to get out a hawser and whip-line and go over in
the breeches buoy.”
“Oh, there’s a better way than that,” Faith
laughed. “ There’s a bridge right over your head—
a bridge over the street. But we are not going to
cross it just now; we are going to take this car.”
They took him into the Fulton Street car that
starts from the ferry-house, and in a few minutes
they were on the opposite side of the city, and in
another car that was carrying them northward.
The sun was sinking behind domes and spires when
they reached the foot of Twenty-Sixth Street,
where, anchored out in the stream, lay the Barra-
couta."
‘“Do you see that big building?” Faith asked,
nodding her head toward a building so large that
Tom could hardly have helped seeing it; “that is
Bellevue Hospital; you must have heard of that, I
suppose. And this smaller one, down by the water,
is the Morgue, where they take the unknown dead.”
“ I' should have been in one or other of them by
this time,” Tom answered, “if you and your father
had'not met me at the train. Why, I never saw
anything like it. Talk about the perils of the sea!
Why, it seems to me there is more danger in walking
across New York than in a whole winter’s work in
the Life-Saving Service. I don’t see how you ever
get across the streets. In that Worst street we


THE “BARRACOUTA” STARTS ON A CRUISE. I39
crossed, where the ﬁre engines were ﬂying up and
down with their gongs ringing— ” -
“Oh, Tom !” Faith laughed; “it is a good thing
we went to meet you. Those weren’t ﬁre engines in
Broadway; those were cable cars.”
“ Just as bad,” Tom insisted. “ I suppose it’s all
right when you’re used to them; but for my part I’d
rather be out in the surf-boat in a storm. It’s safer,
and more pleasant.”
By this time they were at the end of the pier,
where one of the Barrac0uta’s boats was waiting for
them; and in ﬁve minutes more they were all on
board the yacht.
Now arose a question that Tom had asked himself
over and over till the excitement of crossing New
York knocked it out of his mind. What was to be
his position on the yacht? Not that he cared much,
but he wondered. To be third mate, Mr. Farnsworth
had said; but that he knew would be very unusual;
almost impossible. Three mates in a crew of six!
He wondered still more when upon going on board
he was taken directly into the cabin.
“We are going to make a guest of you till we get
under way,” Mr. Farnsworth told him. “We are to
be towed down through the narrows early in the
morning, and if the weather is pleasant, we will hoist
sail and go out to sea. You will ﬁnd that I am
a fair-weather sailor, Perry. I go sailing for pleas-
ure, and it’s no pleasure to be at sea in bad
weather.” S ‘
O


L40 THE BEA CH PA TROL.
“Indeed it’s not, sir!” Tom agreed; and Faith
was decidedly of the same opinion, too.
How well it was that all his clothes had been put
in order, and that he had added some new ones to
the stock! If he had gone aboard in the “ rig” of a
third mate, he would have felt very uncomfortable in
that handsome cabin, and at dinner and in the snug
stateroom that he was given. He soon found that
the crew was larger now than when the yacht struck
on the bar. There were a good cook, and a steward
to wait in the cabin, and a captain and mate and
four men and a boy—nine in all, and Tom made ten.
“ What are all these vessels about us?” he asked,
when, after eating dinner, they were out on deck.
“Why, there’s a regular ﬂeet of them; and all
handsome ones, too.”
“ These are all yachts,” Mr. Farnsworth told him ;
“most of them steam yachts. This is one of the
yacht anchorages. You see in a busy harbor like
this it is necessary to have a place for everything,
and keep everything in its place. Over in the
North River is the anchorage for men-of-war, and no
othervessels are allowed to anchor there. In an-
other place is the anchorage for vessels with explo-
sives on board. They are not allowed to come too
near the city, for fear of accidents. This is one of
the anchorages for yachts. There is another down
at Bay Ridge, and another off Staten Island. You
will see as we go out to-morrow that this is a very
large harbor—one of the largest in the world.”
I


THE “BARRACOI/TA” STARTS ON A CRUISE. I4!
Tom was waked early in the morning by a great
noise on deck; and when he dressed and hurried out
he found a tug in front of them, getting a big hawser
made fast to the yacht. He hardly had time to see
what was going on before he was joined by Faith,
wrapped in a long cloak.
“ You see I am an early bird, too, Tom,” she said.
“I came out to show you the sights, for there is a
great deal to see in New York harbor. I like to see
it myself, too. Somehow it always reminds me of
reading Shakspeare. Do you ever read Shakspeare ? ”
“N-o,” he answered, with some hesitation, “ I
don’t think I’ve ever read it. Is it good?”
“Well, some parts of it, I think, are very fair!”
she said, and threw her head back and laughed such
a jolly little laugh that Tom saw he had gone a triﬂe
beyond his depth. “ What I mean is that when you
read Shakspeare you come across sayings that you’ve
heard all your life, without knowing where they
came from. And it’s just so in this harbor. Every
minute something looms up that you have often
heard of, but may not have seen before.”
How true this was Tom soon saw for himself.
At ﬁrst all his wonderment was concentrated on the
great number of ships that lined both sides of the
river. He had read about “forests of masts,” but
never quite understood it. Now he knew that there
really were such things as forests of masts—and
thickets of steamships and steamboats.
“ Now you are going to see something,” Faith


I42 THE BEACH PATROL.
said, as they swung around a turn in the river.
“ There is the Brooklyn Bridge right in front of us.
Take a good look at it, Tom, for you’ll not see a
bigger bridge anywhere in the world.”
A bigger bridge! He answered that he rather
thought not. It took him a little time to grasp the
fact that it really was a bridge, that great street so
high in the air that the tallest masts could pass
under it, yet with railroad trains running across it,
and streams of wagons and carriages, and a never-
ending tide of people.
“And here is the Brooklyn Navy Yard,” Faith
went on. “You have heard of that, of course.
And do you see these tall buildings in the city?
I can tell you the names of some of them. There
is the Tract Society building. That very tall one
is called the St. Paul building, because it is opposite
St. Paul’s church; and below it is the Equitable
building.” -
“The Equitable building!” Tom exclaimed. “That
immense big building? I had a letter from a lawyer
there not long ago. He must be very rich, to have
such a building.”
Faith choked down another laugh and explained
that the lawyer probably occupied only one out of
hundreds of oﬂices in such a building.
“And some people are so dishonest, Tom,” she
added. “Sometimes a man will rent a little oﬂice
in a great big building, and then have pictures made
of the whole building, with his name on big signs


\“'%‘$8 ‘W g;'v~n--
,
‘
j‘ il ‘I

DO YOU SEE THOSE TALL BUILDINGS IN THE CITY?

‘


THE “BARRACOUTA” STARTS ON A CRUISE. I43
all across the front of it. Such pictures as they
print on envelopes and letter-heads, you know.
That’s to make you folks in the country believe
that he occupies the whole building, and does a very
large business.”
As they passed out of the East River into the
upper bay, past the Battery and the tall buildings
near it, and Tom looked up the much larger North
River with its greater life and bustle, he grew very
thoughtful and quiet. -
“A penny for your thoughts, Tom!” Faith
laughed, shaking his arm. “What is it, now?”
“Shall I tell you, Faith?” he answered. It was
growing very natural already to call her Faith. “I
was just thinking that I am learning more every
ﬁve minutes, this morning, than I could learn in
school in a week.”
“Why, of course!” Faith laughed. “It’s not
every school has such a teacher as you have this
morning. I am growing a little proud, too, to think
there’s something I can teach such a big brave Life-
Saver. But there is the Statue of Liberty nearly
ahead—and beyond that is Staten Island; and on
the other side is the lower part of Brooklyn. In
a few minutes I can show you Fort Lafayette.”
“Oh, I have often heard of that!” Tom replied.
“You seem to know most everything, Faith.”
“Indeed she doesn’t. She only makes you think
so.”
They both started at this unexpected voice behind


CHAPTER IX.
A LINER IN PERIL.
“ THIS is a little different from any of the sea
stories I have read,” Tom could not help
thinking. “Third mate of a yacht; ﬁne quarters
in the cabin; regular hotel meals; owner’s pretty
daughter to point out the curiosities.”
Yet he did not think of it with as much satisfac-
tion as might be supposed. There was something
lacking, as there generally is.
He had shipped on the yacht, expecting to have work
to do to earn his money. But here was the boat out
through the narrows, out past Sandy Hook and the
Highlands, sailing smoothly down the coast, without
a word said to him about what he was to do; and he
was quartered in the cabin like a guest, instead of in
the forecastle like a sailor.
An unfortunate little idea had stolen into his head
to make him uncomfortable. Could it be, he won-
dered, that Mr. Farnsworth had given him this queer
position just for the sake of giving him in another
form the reward that he had refused on the beach?
“ I hope it’s not so,” he said to himself. “I
145


146 THE BEACH PATROL.
thought myself in great luck to get a job where I
could earn some money. But to be paid just to look
on, that would be very different. I shouldn’t like
that at all.”
He was crossing a bridge before he came to it, as
we all do sometimes. At a little after eleven o’clock
Mr. Farnsworth called him down into the cabin.
“Now, Perry,” said he, “ I am going to lay out
your work for you. At ﬁve minutes before twelve
the Captain will get out his instruments to take an
observation, and I want you with him to see how it
is done. I want you to learn howto do it yourself.
I want you to learn as much about navigation as you
can on this trip.”
“Yes, sir,” Tom answered, wondering what all
this meant.
“I spoke, you will remember,” Mr. Farnsworth
continued, “ of your shipping with us as third mate.
But I found that would not work. Three mates on
a small yacht would be ridiculous. You see I don’t
make any pretence of understanding these nautical
matters. I am not one of those yacht-owners who
pretend to command their own vessel, and call the
Captain sailing-master. I don’t know anything
about it — don’t want to know.
“ But I am going to appoint you assistant sailing-
master, just as if we were a stylish enough ship to
have a sailing-master. The Captain will teach you
navigation, and you can stand his watch. He has one
watch and the mate the other, so that will help him


.4 LINER 1./v PERIL. 147
out. And you will keep your room here in the
cabin.”
“Yes, sir,” Tom answered again; “ but I hope
you have not put me in this place, Mr. Farnsworth,
just for the sake of giving me something to do. I
should not feel right to take pay for being taught
navigation.” -
“ You’re always afraid of my losing money, -Perry,”
the owner laughed. “Well, that’s a novelty; most
people are willing to help me spend it. But you
need not be alarmed; I will get the worth of my
money out of you in the end. I will tell you, to ease
your conscience, that I want you to learn the art of
navigation, so that some day, when you are older,
I can have you on board all the time, perhaps as
ﬁrst mate. You need not look so surprised; I am
entirely selﬁsh in this. I am rather timid on the
water myself, so I want somebody I can depend upon
in an emergency. I know what you are in such a
case—just the pattern of sailorman I like. You
are too young now; but some day, if you eat hearty
meals and go to bed early, you will be older. Now
don’t argue with the owner; go and report to the
Captain.”
Did that explain the mystery of his position?
Tom wondered, as he started to obey the order.
He hardly thought it did; the mystery seemed
rather deeper than ever. However, he had some-
thing to do now, and not so much time to think.
At ﬁve minutes before twelve he stood amidships


148 THE BEA CH PA TROL.
with the Captain, learning how to “take the sun,”
sextant in hand, and not the least idea in the world
what to do with it. His experience had all been on
coasters, and coasters rarely take observations.
“You want that dark glass up, this bright day,”
the Captain said. There were half a dozen movable
glasses in the sextant, of different colors. “Now
then; get the sextant up to your eye, and shift it
about till you get both the sun and the horizon
line reﬂected in the little mirror. Got it? Now do
you see how the sun is dropping down toward the
horizon?”
“Why, so it is!” Tom answered.
“ Very well,” the Captain continued. “ Of course
the sun doesn’t drop behind the horizon at noon;
the arrangement of this mirror makes it look so.
Through that glass it looks like a little dim ball
of light, doesn’t it? Very well. The moment the
lower edge of that ball touches the horizon line, you
call ‘time.’ That is exactly noon here where we
are.”
The sun was very close to the line now, so Tom
did not venture to answer. Down it came, a little
closer every second. 
“Time!” he shouted.
The Captain made a memorandum of the exact
time in his little book, and put up his watch.
“But how do you get your longitude from that,
sir?’’ Tom asked.
“Well, we know it was exactly noon here when


A LINER IN PERIL. I49
the sun touched the line, don’t we? Now the time
on my chronometer and on this watch is Wash-
ington time. As many minutes as the noon time
here is faster than noon time at Washington, so
many miles we are east of Washington. Do you see
into that?”
“Why, how easy that is!” Tom exclaimed; “I
had no idea taking an observation was so easy.”
“ Wait till you’re out of the woods,” the Captain
laughed. “ This is only the ﬁrst step, here. By the
time you’ve taken the tables in the nautical almanac,
and ﬁgured out all the allowances for declination,
and northing and southing, and a dozen other things,
you’ll think you’ve been run over by a multiplication
table.”
Tom soon found this to be very true. Nothing
shows the advantage of beginning early to learn
things, more than ﬁguring out an observation. A
grown man may be never so good an arithmetician,
but let him undertake for the ﬁrst time to determine
the latitude and longitude of a ship, and he soon
ﬁnds himself hopelessly mixed up; yet every twelve-
year-old boy in the nautical schools does it without
difficulty.
He hoped to see the Great Harbor Station as they
passed, but they were much too far out for that.
The Captain had had enough experience with strik-
ing bars, and he kept well out to sea to pass Cape
Hatteras safely—so far, indeed, that in a few days
the masses of ﬂoating seaweed they ran through


I50 THE BEACH PATROL.
showed that they were on the edge of the Gulf
Stream.
Tom’s prediction that “ things would happen” on
that voyage, because so many things had happened
when he joined the Life-Saving Service, showed that
however good a Life-Saver he might be, he was a
poor prophet. It was a smooth and uneventful sum-
mer sail; precisely such a trip as Mr. Farnsworth
and Faith hoped for. There were pleasures in port,
but no perils or excitements by sea. For several
weeks the yacht lay in Charleston harbor, Mr. Farns-
worth having a number of friends in the city; and
Tom not only had a chance to become acquainted
with one of the ﬁnest old cities of the South, but
unexpectedly met two old friends in the harbor—
school-book friends, that had long been familiar to
him by name, but that had always seemed to him
more like misty relics of the past than things that
could actually be seen. These were Fort Sumter and
Fort Moultrie, whose history he knew well.
From Charleston the yacht ran down to Tybee
Light, and was towed up the river to Savannah, where
she lay for several weeks more, until, the weather
becoming too warm, she was headed northward again,
and touched nowhere till she ran in behind the
breakwater at Block Island. On that curious island,
where there are only two trees, which are regarded
as great curiosities by the inhabitants, he visited the
two Life-Saving Stations, and saw for the ﬁrst time
a real steel life-boat, so built that no matter how


A LINER IN PERIL. I51
much water it shipped, the water immediately ran
out.
“Now, Perry,” Mr. Farnsworth said to him, one
day in the ﬁrst week in August, “ we are going to
run over to New London to-morrow, to take on pro-
visions for a sail up the Maine coast. But your trip
with us will have to end at New London, if you are
to be back at your station by the middle of August.
Faith and I will both look forward to having you
with us again next summer; and I hope you have
found this a proﬁtable little voyage.”
“Proﬁtable in every way, sir!” Tom answered;
“only too proﬁtable for the little work I could give
in return. I don’t know how to thank you and
Faith enough for all your kindness to me, sir.”
“ You thank us best by making good use of your
opportunities,” Mr. Farnsworth said. “You have
not wasted your time this summer ; I think I could
almost trust you now to navigate the yacht down
the coast.
“Now about getting you home,” he continued.
“ I don’t want to have you shipwrecked in New York,
so I shall put you in a train that will carry you di-
rect to Philadelphia. This is a through train from
Boston to Washington, and at New York they put
the cars on a big steamboat and carry them around
the city, so you won’t have to get out of the car at
all.
“There is one thing about that trip that will
interest you. The boat that carries the cars around


I§2 THE BEACH PATROL.
New York is a very large one called the Maryland.
Long before you were born, away back in war time,
the Maryland was used to carry cars across the
Susquehannah River at Havre—de-Grace. There was
no bridge there then. Thousands of our soldiers
who went down South were carried across the Sus-
quehannah on that old boat. And just about the
time that you were a little baby in long clothes, she
was rebuilt and a steam steering apparatus was put
in her, and the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher steered
her up the East River on her ﬁrst trip with the new
steering gear. So you see the old boat has a history.”
Both Faith and her father stood beside Tom on
the station platform when he waited for the train,
and each had a little parting gift for him. Mr.
Farnsworth slipped into his hand the railway tickets
to carry him direct to Philadelphia; and Faith gave
him a handsome copy of Shakspeare’s works.
“ You’ll ﬁnd some things in it quite worth reading,”
she said with a smile. “It may remind you of our
sail down New York harbor. I don’t like to say
good by, Tom, we’ve had such pleasant times; but
we expect you again next summer; and if we should
be wrecked again anywhere near your station, you’ll
be sure to be after us with the whip-line.”
It was as well that the heavy train rolled up at
that moment, for Faith was not equal to any more
jokes. One hurried handshake, and the train was
off, and Tom’s two good friends were out of sight.
But what was all this? What did these big easy-


A LINER IN PERIL. I53
chairs mean instead of the crowded seats, and the
porter in uniform to take his satchel, and the huge
plate glass windows? Tom had never seen such a
car before, and thought at ﬁrst that he must have
made a mistake. But the porter looked at his ticket
and showed him to one of the big chairs, and it
seemed to be all right. It was his ﬁrst ride in a
parlor car, that was all; and if he had not seen the
fences ﬂying backwards he would hardly have known
that the train was in motion.
New London, in the State of Connecticut, at ten
o’clock in the morning; New York at two in the
afternoon; Philadelphia at half-past four; and Way’s
Landing, by another train at half-past six. Break-
fast in Connecticut, supper in New Jersey. Who
ever heard of such a thing? It was enough to make
a young Life-Saver dizzy.
“ I’m afraid it was too good a time,” he told Aunt
Hannah, after the usual kissing had been done and a
few tears of joy had been shed. “ It was more like
a pleasure trip than a job at work, though I tried to
make myself useful. I have been learning naviga-
tion, as I wrote you; and you’ve no idea how kind
they both were to me. And the pains that Faith
took to explain the things I didn’t understand. Just
look at the beautiful book she gave me.”
“ Oh, Tom, my dear boy, that’s just what I don’t
like!” Aunt Hannah burst out, seizing him lovingly
by both arms and looking him straight in the eyes.
“I don’t like to have you around that girl so much.


154 THE BEACH PATROL.
They’re an artful, designing set; I know ’em; and I
don’t want to lose my dear boy! ”
“Lose your dear boy ! ” Tom exclaimed in amaze-
ment ; and then, as the meaning of his aunt’s words
became plainer to him, he let himself drop into a big
rocking-chair and fairly roared with laughter. If he
had not belonged to the Life-Saving Service he would
have got down on the ﬂoor and rolled.
“Do you mean she’s making love to me?” he
gasped. “ Why, Aunty, she’s only a little young girl ;
too young to think of beans. And if she wanted
one, do you think she’d look at a fellow like me?
Me? Oh, dear, dear, there are some awfully funny
things about dear old aunties. Just think of a girl
with a father rich enough to own a' yacht with a
crew of ten men, and everything in the world she
can possibly wish for, ‘ having designs,’ as you say,
on a surfman, a beach patrolman with his lantern,
a country boy so green that he’s scared to death to
go across New York City. My! My! My!”
“It’s all very well, Mr. Tom Perry!” his aunt
replied. “You never were a girl, if I remember
right. Well, I was once; and I know more about
them than you do. Oh, I know their little tricks.
And those city girls are so bold, with their bicycles,
and such folderols. There’s no girl in the land but
might be glad to catch a ﬁne young fellow like
you.”
“ Thank you, Miss Perry!” Tom cried, jumping up
and making the handsomest mock bow he was capa-


‘ A LINER 1./v PERIL. r55
ble of. “But my affections are already engaged, as
they say in the books. I am in love with a ﬁne
lady, named Aunt Hannah, and when I make money
enough, I hope to live with her all the rest of my
life.” '
Such a beautiful little speech was necessarily fol-
lowed by a clasp around the waist, and a kiss or
two, and under this treatment Miss Hannah soon
recovered her equanimity. But Tom noticed that
throughout his stay his aunt would not admire the
Shakspeare Faith had given him. “ I’m afraid,” he
said to himself, “ she thinks it a sort of man-trap, to
catch a ﬁne young fellow ! What nonsense ! ”
At any rate, there was no nonsense about the thick
winter clothes Aunt Hannah had ready for him to
take to the station. Such shirts! and such woollen
stockings, all of her own knitting! And how good
it seemed to be back in the old station,—little cot
beds and all, — shaking hands with Captain Powers,
and exchanging greetings with Henry Turner and
Dave Ackerley and the rest. Ezra Waterhouse had
been sick, but had recovered, and there were no
changes in the crew.
From the middle of August till past the middle of
October Tom took his turn at patrolling the beach,
looking for a wreck, but found none. How ready he
would have been to burn that Coston signal at ﬁrst
sight of anything! But there was no sight of any-
thing beyond the beach and the breakers and Andrew
Carter’s little ﬁsherman’s hut.


155 THE BEACH PATROL.
On the 18th of October the ﬁrst of the heavy
autumn storms began, and for three days the wind
blew a gale from the southeast, piling up billows like
young mountains, and spitefully hurling tons of foam-
ing water against the beach. Tom had never seen
anything like it. On the night of the 19th he had
the north patrol, and twice the wind threw him over,
the second time breaking his lantern. In the after-
noon of the 21st the storm broke, and what was left
of the wind shifted to the south’ard. But the sea
remained just as high, though the air became warmer;
and that sudden raising of the temperature brought
a fog—a thick, wet, dangerous fog. That is the
weather to make every Life-Saver keep his eyes and
ears open—high sea and heavy fog!
Early in the evening of the 22d, sea still thunder-
ing against the sand, and fog still thick enough to
cut, Tom was leaning over the sitting-room table
writing a letter. On the other side sat Captain
Powers, writing up his log. He always had an anx-
ious look, in such weather. Myron Hawthorn and
Dave Ackerley were playing checkers, and Water-
house was reading a newspaper. Henry Turner was
out on the north patrol, and James Hoover on the
south.
Something burst into the little room that brought
every man to his feet in an instant. It was the
whistle of a steamship; the dreadful whistle that
says almost plain as words that she is in distress,
and wants help —the deep hoarse wail from down in


A LINER nv PERIL. 15 7
her very stomach—that a man never forgets who
once hears it:
“Help! Help! HELP! HELP!”
“A steamer!” Captain Powers cried. The check-
ers ﬂew in all directions, and Tom’s ink was upset,
for the table was almost turned over, as the Captain
sprang for the rack and seized a Coston signal.
As he rushed out of the house, all the others fol-
lowed him ; and when they turned the corner they
saw a sight that set the blood to jumping in their
veins. There lay an immense steamer on the bar
almost in front of them, sheering around broadside
on, and looking bigger every instant. They could
not see a dot or line of her, but could tell her by
her lights.
Whack! went the palm of the Captain’s iron hand
against the button of the signal-holder, and up ﬂared
(the light.
“Ready all!” the Captain ordered. He was as
cool now as a bronze statue. “Open the doors,
Perry. Man the mortar, Hawthorn. Get the whip-
line, Ackerley. Look to the hawser, Waterhouse.”
All this took only an instant, but in that instant
some strange things happened. The Captain’s light
was hardly struck before another light ﬂashed up to
the northward. That was Henry Turner’s. Faith-
ful old Turner! no wreck could escape his practised
eye. Then one to the south’ard. That was Wax
Hoover’s. Then a dim red glare still further north
showed that the Absecon Station was awake. An-


I 58 THE BEA CH PATROL.
other in the south; that was the Ocean City Station.
Five red lights, each one saying to the great steamer,
“We see you. We are coming! ”
But that was not all. The steamer’s whistle had
been blowing, but now it stopped and she began to
burn a red light herself —an answering signal. And
in the lull there came booming through the fog an-
other hoarse whistle, further off.
“Another steamer—outside!” the Captain said.
“Bring out another Coston, and burn it, Perry.”
Tom had the big doors open by this time, and
while he went for the signal and burnt it, the mortar
was rushed out. The steamer lay much nearer shore
than the Barracouta had lain, for the bar at Great
Harbor runs out diagonally, northeast and south-
west.
Tom’s signal was not burnt out yet before a ﬂash,
a report, the whizzing of the line, told him that the
mortar had been ﬁred. There was a moment of sus-
pense, and then a shout from the men told him that
the shot had been successful. They knew it by the
steady pull on the cord, which showed that the
steamship men had the other end.
Turner and Hoover came running up and assisted
in getting out and placing the big sand anchor to
which the whip-line and hawser were to be made
fast. Tom took a hand at that, too.
For a moment the Captain stood stock still, his
hand up to his ear, listening.
“ She’s catching it!” he said. “Every sea breaks


A LINER IN PERIL. I59
over her.” In all the racket, he could distinguish
that sound.
Hurrah! they have the whip-line, and a white ﬁre
burnt on the steamer tells that it is made fast. Now
the hawser is bent on, and how the men do pull!
Pull, boys, pull! You don’t know yet how many»
lives are at stake!
Out goes the hawser, with a long steady reach.
Up go the shears, ready to hold it.
“Bring the breeches buoy, Turner,” the Captain
orders.
Now another white light on the ship shows that
the hawser is made fast. One more cheer, for here
comes the Absecon crew galloping down the beach
with two good horses, their mortar, life-line, and
hawser in the wagon, seven stout hearts under their
shirts. In a twinkling the breeches buoy is in place.
“I go ﬁrst to the ship,” the Captain said, as he
climbed into the canvas breeches. “Perry and Ac-
kerley will follow me. Turner will take charge on
shore. Give way, boys! ”
Even in the breeches buoy it was a dangerous trip
through that heavy sea to the ship, and the stout
Captain would let no man break the way for him.
Olf he went, now through a wave, now in the air
again, now lost in the fog.
Back she comes. The signal says that the-Cap-
tain is safe on board. It is Tom’s turn next, and he
braces himself for the ducking that is to come. He
bends his head to pull the harder on the line, but a


160 THE BEACH PATROL.
shout from his comrades causes him to look up, and
he sees that there is a man in the breeches. Then
he shouts too, for it is the ﬁrst man brought ashore
from the wreck.
“What steamer is that?” Tom asks of this man
from the sea, as he climbs into the breeches.
“ The Earopia,” he says.
“ How many people on board ? ”
“ Over seventeen hundred!” is the answer. “Give
way, boys, with every muscle in your brawny arms.”
O
I
l ~.


162 THE BEACH PATROL.
There was not as much confusion there as he ex-
pected to ﬁnd, because the waves broke over her so
furiously that the passengers were all below. He
immediately inquired for Captain Powers, to report
to him, and was told that he had gone into the cabin
with the steamship Captain. Following him up, Tom
arrived in the cabin just in time to see what the
Captain of a big Atlantic liner does to quiet his
passengers when they are in peril.
There was confusion enough in the cabin ! Women
were crying, children clinging to their mothers, men
hurriedly packing their valuables into small satchels
in the hope of saving them, and everything soaked
with the water that had broken in. The Captain
could hardly move, for the men and women who
crowded around him, asking whether there was any
hope.
“Drowned!” he said to one of these, but loud
enough for all to hear, “what would you be drowned
for?” He was as cool as possible, even smiling.
“You’re all snug and comfortable here, ain’t you?
The ship is tight as a drum, and I’ll land you all in
New York in a few hours.
“ But any one can go ashore now who wants to,”
he went on, turning to another group. “ We have a
big hawser to the beach, and I have sent one man
ashore already to telegraph for tugs. Here is the
Captain of the Life-Saving Station; he will tell you
you are in no danger. Tell us what you think about
it, Captain.”


AU./VT HANNAH VISITS THE STATION. 163
“I think you are in no danger at present, ladies
and gentlemen,” Captain Powers said, taking oﬁ his
wet cap. “ The ship is safe unless the weather
grows bad, and in that case we can soon land you
all. We have one hawser out to the ship now, and
there are two more crews on the beach ready to go
to work.”
“ Here is another man from shore!” the Captain
broke in, as Tom stepped forward. “No trouble at
all about it. If there’s any man or woman here
who’s willing to take a ducking for the sake of going
ashore, let him come with me now, and I will engage
to set him safe on the beach in one minute.”
Tom had to admire the coolness of this man, and
the tact with which he managed his passengers. He
did not want them to go ashore, and the surest way
to keep them was to tell them that any could go who
wished. A minute before almost any man there
would have given a hundred dollars to be set ashore;
but now that the way was open, they were willing to
stand by the ship.
The scene was much worse in the steerage, where
they went next to inspire conﬁdence. Ackerley had
arrived by this time, and the four went down among
the poor immigrants, who were sure that their last
hour had come. Many of them could speak no Eng-
lish; they wept, groaned, prayed, in many languages.
And when they learned that the three Life-Savers
had really come from the shore, they wanted to hug
them and shed tears of joy over them—no very


164 THE BEACH PATROL.
pleasant thing, Tom thought, for they were none too
clean.
As matters stood now, there was little for the
Life-Savers to do unless the ship began to show signs
of breaking up; and the modern liners are too strong
to go to pieces on a sandy beach except in the most
violent seas. Tom and Ackerley and the Captain
were of use to inspire conﬁdence, but that was all
for the present.
“He’s a cool fellow, this Captain,” Tom said to
Captain Powers, when he had a chance.
“Yes, cool enough,” the Captain answered, “ but
he deserves to go to State’s prison.”
“ Why so, Captain?” Tom asked, surprised at
such an assertion.
“For risking the lives of all these people,” the
Captain replied. “ Don’t you see how the thing
happened? That whistle we heard out in the fog
came from the City of Boston. These two steamers
have been racing across the Atlantic for the last four
days. If the City of Boston could beat the fast Ea-
ropia into New York, it would be a great feather in
her cap. She -was bound to try it, anyhow, and the
Europia was bound not to let her do it. So away
they went, and after a while they ran into this fog.
But no matter. Seventeen hundred people on one
ship, fourteen hundred on the other, and the Captains
thinking of nothing but speed. Throw on the coal!
The Europia was ahead, and the other followed her,
supposing that she knew the way. No time to take
D
F
i
iii‘


166 THE BEACH PA TROL.
and carriages. By this time half the world knew
that the Europia was aground at Great Harbor, and
wondered whether she would go to pieces there.
Those who were near enough ﬂocked to the scene in
any conveyances they could get, and the hackmen of
Atlantic City already had regular stage lines estab-
lished for carrying passengers.
The crowd grew larger every minute, and Tom was
glad when Myron Hawthorn was sent out to relieve
him, so that he could go ashore. He wanted to see
that excitement on the beach. By this time there
were three big hawsers out to the ship, but positive
orders had been given that no one was to be allowed
to go on board.
“How is that?” he asked Henry Turner, when
he saw three young men evidently preparing to go
out in the breeches buoy; “I thought that no one
could go out to the ship ?”
“ Oh, those are reporters,” Turner answered ; “they
go everywhere.”
“Reporters!” Tom repeated; “why, where did
they come from ; and how did they get here?”
“From the big cities,” Turner replied,—“ New
York and Philadelphia and other places. And they
came in the cars to Atlantic City, I suppose. They’re
always sure to be on hand when anything happens to
a passenger ship; and they appear as if they sprung
up from the ground. See that fellow starting off
now. He knows how to ride in the breeches buoy
like an old sailor. He’s seen such things before.


AUNT HANNAH VISITS THE STATIOIV. I67
This is not his ﬁrst trip to a stranded steamer, I’ll
warrant you.”
“ But I don’t see how they heard about it,” Tom
persisted.
“There’s precious little they don’t hear about,”
Turner laughed. “ But everybody knows about this
now. It’s in the papers all over the country, and in
London and most everywhere else. By noon the
beach won’t be big enough to hold the people, for
the friends of these passengers will be coming to see
whether they are all safe. That’s the way it always
is. You haven’t seen a big passenger ship stranded
before, have you? You see that ﬁrst sailor who
came ashore went up to Atlantic City and telegraphed
to New York for tugs to pull the ship off, and that’s
the way the news got out. Here comes something
now that you’ve never seen before.”
Henry Turner nodded his head as he spoke toward
two men who were pushing their way through the
crowd with big coils of wire and several cases.
“ What is that? ” Tom asked.
“ A telephone line, I reckon,” Turner replied.
“That’s the way they do these things nowadays.
In half an hour or so they’ll have a wire out to the
ship, connected with their nearest wire on shore, so
that the people on board can talk to their friends
all over the country. They’1l do a rushing business,
too, for everybody will want to talk.”
The two men lost no time about getting their line
into operation. One of them went out to the ship


168 THE BEA CH PA TROL.
in the breeches buoy, carrying a coil of insulated
wire that unwound as he travelled, arranged with a
spiral spring at the end, so that when the ship moved
the wire would stretch without breaking. In a short
time there was a regular “pay station ” telephone
ofﬁce on the ship, and another in the station on
shore, so that any passenger who was willing to
spend a dollar could call up his friends and talk to
them.
This was more interesting to Tom than anything
else about the stranding. He had grown used to
having so many people around him; but the idea of
running a telephone wire out to a stranded ship was
something he had never heard of or thought of.
Besides, the telephone itself was something of a
mystery to him, for telephones had not made their
way yet into Way’s Landing. The line had not been
in operation long, before the man in charge of the
ofﬁce in the station went up to Tom outside and
tapped him on the shoulder.
“ Is your name Tom Perry?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” Tom answered.
“There’s a man here wants to speak to you,” he
said; and Tom followed him into the sitting-room,
where the ofﬁce was.
“ Where is he?” Tom asked, as he looked around
the room and saw no one but the operator.
“Here, on the wire,” the man said. “Just sit
down here and put this receiver up to your ear and
yourmouth close to this transmitter. Not too close,


AUNT HANNAH VISITS THE STATION. I69
though. That’s it. Now say ‘ hello ’ in an ordinary
tone, and the man will answer you.”
“ Hello,” said Tom, laughing at the idea of talking
to an india rubber tube.
“ Hello! ” a voice answered; “ are you Tom Perry?”
Tom almost sprang out of the chair, for it was a
voice that he knew very well. But he got back to
his place and replied:
“ Yes, sir.”
“I am Mr. Farnsworth,” the voice said. “ I hear
you have a wreck down your way.”
“ Why, Mr. Farnsworth ! ” Tom exclaimed; “how
glad I am to see you—or to hear you, I mean.
Where are you, sir?”
“ I am in Boston,” the voice answered. “ Are
they going to get that steamer off all right?”
“ Yes, sir, I think so,” Tom replied. “We have
hawsers out to her, and I have been on board. They
are waiting for the wrecking tugs now, and I think
she will be safe unless the weather gets worse.
There is a great crowd here.”
“ Well, take care of yourself,” the voice continued;
“ don’t risk your neck unless you have to.”
“No, sir,” said Tom; “there is no danger now.
Remember me to Miss Faith, please.”
“ Ha, ha, ha! ” came over the wire ; and he
thought the telephone was laughing at him. But
he knew that voice too. “ How are you, Tom? Yes,
I am Faith. Yes, we are both well. You must have
been surprised when that ship struck. I must stop


I70 THE BEACH PATROL.
now, so many people are waiting for the wire. Good
by, Tom.”
The operator turned a little handle that rang a
bell, and Tom could hardly realize that his friends
had come to him so suddenly and were gone. A
moment before they were with him in the room;
now they were gone.
Strange things were happening so fast that he
could hardly keep pace with them. When he went
out to the beach again the crowd was larger than
before, and some tents had been erected. He counted
twenty cameras, large and small, directed at the ship;
and in several of the tents photographers were rap-
idly making pictures and selling them. Other tents
were refreshment stands, with hot clam broth, and
tea and coﬁee, and pies and cakes, and sandwiches.
Boys were selling little pamphlets giving a full de-
scription of the Europia and her fastest voyages.
Other boys were selling canes, cheap opera-glasses,
almost every imaginable thing. One enterprising
man from Atlantic City was actually putting up a
hotel—a mushroom hotel of canvas, where people
who cared to stay could have meals and lodging.
The whole scene reminded Tom of the county fair,
only it was much larger.
Another member of the crew looked with great
interest at the always growing crowd, though he had
seen such things before. This was Jim Hoover; and
his interest was not so much in the crowd itself as
in what might be made out of it. Let it be the pas-
2


AUNT HANNAH VISITS THE STATION. I71
sengers on board or the.spectators on shore, no mat-
ter which; if there was anything to be made, he was
ready to make it, and he would not inquire too closely
about the means. Hoover had to be more than cau-
tious about making any move to this end, because he
knew of at least one pair of sharp eyes that would
be watching him ; and those eyes belonged to Henry
Turner. Long before, Turner had by the merest
accident discovered that Hoover had in his posses-
sion a watch that had belonged to a man who was
found drowned on the beach; and he was careful not
to ask any questions about it. But he took Jim
aside and talked to him like a father.
“I don’t like to see such things, lad,” he said to
him. “ We are poor men in this service, but we are
honest. Of course you must hand the watch over to
the Capt.ain; and if you do, I have nothing to say
this time, for I don’t want to see you disgraced.
But be careful, lad, be careful. Another time I’d
think it my duty to speak out.”
Tom was destined to make another trip to the
steamer sooner than he expected. Nothing had been
seen yet of the wrecking tugs; but a dim line of
smoke in the northeast told the surfmen that some-
thing was coming.
“ That’s a Revenue Cutter, coming after the mails,”
the telephone operator soon announced. He had the
news over his wire, and the news immediately made
work for the Life-Savers; for Turner, Waterhouse,
Ackerley, Hoover, and Tom were ordered to go out to


I72 THE BEACH PATROL.
the steamer to assist in getting the mails out of the
hold and transferring them to the Cutter.
“Do they always send after the mails when a
steamer is stranded?” Tom asked Henry Turner.
“Yes, indeed,” Turner replied. “ You’d think
they cared more for the mails than the passengers.
The mails must be hurried through, but the passen-
gers will have to stay here till the ship gets off, un-
less she sticks too long.”
Tom had often seen the little bag of letters arrive
at Way’s Landing, and he had an indeﬁnite idea that
the steamer’s mails would be something like that;
he was not prepared to see the great leather pouches
hoisted out of the hold in bunches of twenty or
thirty at a time, and come so fast and frequent that
he soon lost all count of them, though he knew
there were not less than ﬁve or six hundred bags.
And those were only the letter pouches. The can-
vas bags of newspapers made quite a little mountain
on deck.
The Revenue Cutter felt her way cautiously in,
and the soundings told her that the tide being high,
she could creep in behind the steamer, and so avoid
the wash of the seas. There was 11ot much left of
the fog now, but the sea was still high.
“I don’t see why we had to help with that work,”
Hoover grumbled to Tom after the Cutter had taken
the mails and gone. “There are plenty of men on
the ship. We ought to get a little something from
the passengers, anyhow, for what we have done for


AUNT HANNAH VISITS TIIE STATION. I73
them. If I had a chance to be in the cabin as much
as you have, I’d give them a little hint.”
“You’d better not let Captain Powers hear you
say that,” Tom replied. ‘
“Do you think I’m a fool ?” Jim went on. “ We
could say a word here and a word there and soon
bring out a little cash without anybody being the
wiser.”
“ None of that for me!” Tom declared. “ You
can go and beg from the passengers if you want to,
but don’t mix me up with it. We have only done
our duty, and not very much at that; and there is
no reason why the passengers should pay us, even if
we were allowed to take it.”
“ Mr. Perry is very particular! ” Hoover sneered ;
“ and always strictly honest! ”
“You’re just right he is,” Tom laughed. “Are
you going to get mad at me because I won’t go on a
begging expedition with you? Maybe the Captain
would give you something to eat if you are hungry,
and that’s not against the rules.”
“ Tom Perry wanted on shore!” a voice called,
before Hoover had time to answer. It was the
voice of Myron Hawthorn, who had just come on
board, dripping. “ You’re to go right ashore, Perry.
There’s some one there to see you.”
“To see me!” Tom answered. “Why, I don’t
know who it can be. What kind of a looking man
is he, Myron? ”
“ Not much of any kind of a looking man,” Haw-


I74 THE BEACH PATROL.
0
thorn laughed, “-if I can judge by the shawl and the
black bonnet. If you’ve got such a thing as an aunt
anywhere around, I think you’ll ﬁnd her standing by
the shore end of the hawser, wondering how her
nephew’s going to get ashore on that big clothes-
line.”
It was Aunt Hannah, sure enough. Judge Naylor
had told her of the big steamer stranded at Great
Harbor, and she had started oﬁ by the next train
for Atlantic City, to see her boy and his comrades
actually at their work.
Miss Hannah’s arrival at the station was some-
thing of an event, even in the midst of the confu-
sion; for the crew all liked Tom, and they soon
began to like an aunt who did not hesitate to show
her surprise at anything she did not understand.
“ Yes, your nephew is all right, ma’am,” Captain
Powers told her, when she made her way up to him
with some difficulty through the crowd. “He is out
on board the steamer, just now; but I will send a
man out to take his place, and let him come ashore.
Or maybe you would like to go out and see the
steamer yourself,” he added, trying hard not to smile.
“ It’s perfectly safe and easy just to step into these
canvas — a—a —these articles, and you can be on
board in a minute.”
“In these things! ” Miss Hannah cried, looking at
the breeches buoy dangling above her head. “I
thought that was a wash hung out to dry. Indeed,
you’ll not see me riding in such a carriage as that.


AUNT HANNAH VISITS THE STATION. 175
But I’ll stand right here, and see the boy come
ashore.”
That was why Tom heard a shriek when he reached
the sag of the hawser and was dragged some distance
through the water. Then he was out on the sand;
and while he wiped the salt water from his face he
heard his aunt declaring that they shouldn’t use her
boy like a rag, and drag him through the sea.
To meet her Tom and not take him in her arms,
was something new to Aunt Hannah; but this time
she could only stand by and look at him lovingly
and wonderingly, for he was dripping salt water from
'head to foot.
“ Now go change those dreadful clothes this min-
ute,” she told him. “I’ll not say another word to
you till you have on dry clothes. It’s enough to
be the death of you, that’s what it is. I should
think the United States might furnish the Life-Savers
nice Indy-rubber suits, and not keep them looking
like drowned rats.”
After taking his aunt into the sitting-room, Tom
disappeared up stairs, and soon returned in dry
clothes. There were a thousand things for them
to talk about, but he could not be satisﬁed till he
had shown her all the beauties of the station—the
boat-room, and the cots up stairs, and the kitchen
even. He expected her to be highly pleased with
everything, but he was disappointed in this. 
“ Yes, it’s just as I expected! ” she declared, as she
examined the corners of the sitting-room and found


AUNT HANNAH VISITS THE STATION. I77
“ All hands!” came a call from the boat-room,
while they were talking, with a violent pounding on
the wall.
Tom sprang up, and soon found that the three
wrecking tugs had arrived, and that the crew were
to take in the hawsers.
“ Now I’ll have to leave you for a little, Aunty,”
he said; “ but you stand right here in the door, and
you’ll see us get the hawsers ashore; and if they have
good luck, you may even see the ship pulled off.”
To have known just what was going on, one need
only have stood close by Aunt Hannah and watched
her face and heard her exclamations. When she
wrung her hands and cried “oh, dear! oh, dear!”
that was because Tom was on his way to the ship
again in the breeches buoy to send all his crewmates
ashore, and have the hawser fastenings let go as soon
as he reached the shore himself.
“ Oh, what a dreadful racket! ” and she clapped
her hands to her ears when the three big tugs, all
with lines fast to the ship, blew their shrill whistles,
the signal to pull together. And certainly there was
a great racket, for a quiet beach. The ship began to
churn the water into foam with her twin propellers,
and blew her powerful whistle to show what a gigan-
tic effort she was making for liberty.
But the best sight of all Tom caught just a
glimpse of, as the crowd set up a tremendous shout.
There stood Aunt Hannah in the doorway, waving
her handkerchief and her arms like mad, and shout-


178 THE BEACH PATROL.
ing with the rest. For the ship was moving! She
was getting off; and it was all through her dear
Tom’s work, she was sure of that. Hurrah! Aunt
Hannah was almost jumping for joy and excitement.
In ten minutes more the big Europia was only a
speck on the darkening water, aﬂoat once more, and
bound for her proper port. The bar was only a
strip of foam-covered sand again. The tugs were
gone with the ship. The crowd on shore began to
melt away.
Tom had just a moment more to see his aunt be-
fore she had to join the throng that swept toward
Atlantic City.
“ Dear boy,” she said, “ how glad I am I came! ”
He was wet as ever again, but she ‘put her arm
around his neck this time. “ It’s not really as lone-
some on the beach as I thought. But do be careful,
Tom, about wet feet and wet clothes, or you’ll have
a sore throat. But Tom!” she had started and
turned back; “to think of a Life-Saving Station
without a life-boat! Dear, dear, dear!”


CHAPTER XI.
A BURNING corron STEAMER. -
“BE sure to change your shoes, Perry,” Jim
Hoover laughed when Tom returned to the
station, after patrol duty on the beach on a foggy
day. “ Wet shoes will give you a sore throat.”
Hoover had either heard, or heard of, Miss Perry’s
caution about the shoes, and he seldom missed an
opportunity to mention it, hoping to make Tom
angry. But these attempts were always failures.
Tom had learned better than to show any anger even
if he felt it, and since the talk on the stranded ship
he cared very little for anything that Hoover might
say or do.
“I am going to, right away,” he replied good-
naturedly. “It’s less trouble to change a dozen
pairs of shoes than to nurse one cold. And then
I’m going to do something else that I’m afraid you
won’t approve of, Jim. I am going to bring down
a volume on navigation, and spend the evening
studying it.” "
“ Oh, we can’t all be officers on yachts, of course,”
Hoover retorted ; “but whatever you do, be sure to
keep-your feet dry.”
I79


180 THE BEACH PATROL.
“Say, Wax,” Ackerley exclaimed, “can’t you
think of some new joke? I can stand hearing the
same thing over pretty often, but that begins to
sound like ancient history. Give us something new,
or keep quiet.”
“ Don’t stop him, Dave,” Tom laughed, pausing a
moment at the foot of the stairs. “ I’ve heard it so
often it sounds quite homelike. I rather enjoy it.”
When he came down again he had not only the
book on navigation, but his portfolio with writing-
materials and a pad and pencil. These things at-
tracted no attention now, though they did at ﬁrst.
In the beginning all the men except Captain Powers
and Henry Turner were inclined to poke fun at Tom
when he brought out his books and papers. They
were not used to seeing such things, and did not
understand why a Life-Saver should trouble himself
with them. If he could handle a good oar and set
up a whip-line, that was enough, they thought.
Tom did not stop to ask himself why his evening
work was not ridiculed any longer, supposing that it
was only because the men had grown used to it.
But there was a better reason for it than that; so
good a reason that the work was gradually giving
him a better position among the men. He was not a
boy among them any more, but a man who knew
something, and who understood some things about
the sea better than they did themselves. Perhaps
that was the main thing. He might have talked to
them in a‘ dozen diﬁerent languages, if he had known


.4 BURNING COTTON STEAMER. 181
how, and they would have thought nothing of it; but
a man who knew more about navigation than they
did was a man to be respected.
There was not a man in the crew but could have
taken a vessel up and down the coast, possibly except-
ing Jim Hoover, and handled her properly. Captain
Powers and Henry Turner were old navigators, and
the Captain had a ﬁne set of nautical instruments in
his room. The others could work the sails and the
tiller, but take them out of sight of land and they
were lost. They could not ﬁnd the ship’s position by
watching the sky, and they had no idea of the use of
the instruments. 
Tom had been at work at his navigation for an
hour or two, and was thinking of going at something
else, when Ezra Waterhouse went over to the little
library case and took out a volume entitled “Life-
Saving Service, Annual Report.”
“ Tom,” said he, as he opened the book, “ I suppose
you have seen this Annual Report of the service,
haven’t you ? ”
“ Oh, yes; a great many times,” he answered.
“ This,” Waterhouse continued, “gives the latitude
and longitude of every station in the service. Do
you know the exact position of this station ?”
“ No, I don’t,” Tom replied. “ I saw it in the
book, but I don’t remember it.”
“ Well,” Waterhouse went on, “ when you say you
don’t know it, I know you don’t. Now I don’t want
you to look at this book, and to-morrow when the


I82 THE BEACH PATROL.
sun is shining, we’ll get the Captain to let you take
his instruments, and see whether you can tell the
latitude and longitude of the station. The book will
tell us whether you get it right or not.”
“ Oh, you needn’t wait for a little thing like the
sun!” Tom laughed. “I can tell you now, by the
stars, if the Captain will let us use his instruments.”
“ Yes, you are entirely welcome to use the instru-
ments,” the Captain said. He and Tom and Ackerley
and Hoover and Ezra Waterhouse were the only ones
in the station. “But that is a long operation, Ezra,
without knowing the Greenwich time. I have no
doubt that Perry can work it out without the time,
but you know he goes on patrol again at twelve
o’clock, so I think I had better give him the exact
Greenwich time, which I can easily do, as I know
our longitude. That will make the calculation much
shorter.”
Tom looked up at the Captain, ready to smile, for
it seemed to him that anybody must see through a
joke like this. But the Captain met his look with a
little frown that told him to keep quiet. The others
were so densely ignorant of the subject that they did
not see that if by knowing the longitude the Captain
could ﬁgure out the Greenwich time, then by merely
reversing the operation, Tom could ﬁgure out the
longitude as soon as he knew the Greenwich time.
In other words, that when you tell an old navigator
the precise Greenwich time and the precise local
time, that is equivalent to telling him the longitude


A BURNING COTTON STEAMER. I83
he is then in, provided he has some idea of the
latitude.
The Captain, rather inclined to laugh himself at
the ease with which an ignorant person can be taken
in, made a brief calculation with Tom’s pencil and
set his watch to Greenwich time, and the ﬁve went
up stairs together, ﬁrst to get the case of instru-
ments, and then to climb to the lookout on the roof
to see Tom “take the stars.”
He made short work of that, for it is a simple pro-
cess for any one who knows the geography of the
heavens. But the worst of it came when they went
down to the sitting-room again, and Tom began to
make his calculations on paper, with the aid of the
Navigator’s Tables. To determine the longitude was
a moment’s work, now that he knew both the Green-
wich and the local time; but ﬁguring out the lati-
tude was a longer task, and when he ﬁnished, several
sheets of his pad were full of calculations.
“ Now, I think I’ve got it,” he said at length, look-
ing up. “Take the book, Ezra, and see whether I
am right. Latitude 39° 19', north.”
“ That’s right, just as sure as you’re born!”
Waterhouse answered, keeping one of his big ﬁngers
under the ﬁgures in the book.
“ Longitude,” Tom went on, “ 74° 31' 10", west.”
“Right again!” Ezra exclaimed. “I declare I
didn’t think you could do it, Tom.”
“Why shouldn’t he do it, when he could get the
ﬁgures out of that book any time?” Hoover growled.


I84 THE BEACH PATROL.
Captain Powers could not keep from laughing any
longer. “ You had better keep your feet dry,
Hoover, or iyou will have a sore throat, sure. I
was in hopes some of you fellows would see the joke
I was playing on you, for your own sakes. If you
knew a compass from a clock, you would have seen
that when I told Perry the Greenwich time, that was
as good as telling him the longitude. He saw it in a
minute, and I had to shake my head at him to keep
him from laughing. But the latitude he calculated
correctly; I know that, for I watched his ﬁgures.
He did it well, and I see that he understands it.”
That evening’s experiment was another step in
Tom’s upward climb in the opinions of his comrades.
Put him on a ship in mid-ocean, and give him a look
at the stars, and he would tell you the ship’s position.
That was more than they could do, and they re-
spected his superior knowledge. It was a kind of
knowledge that they could appreciate.
That was only one evening; but every evening
when Tom was off duty he found work of his own to
do. Sometimes it was study, sometimes writing
letters, sometimes a little of both. He liked those
days best when his turn came for the “middle
watch” on beach patrol, from midnight till four in the
morning, as that gave him a good long evening in
the sitting-room, which was not quite equal to the
pleasant evenings at home, but still was the most
homelike feature of the station. Two nights in the
week he did not have to go out from eight in the


A BURNING COTTON STEAMER. I85
evening till four next morning; and those were the
best of all.
On one of these nights, a wild though not an ex-
tremely cold night in December, with the wind blow-
ing almost a gale and a heavy rain beating upon the
roof, he lay awake in the dark, listening to the storm
and thinking of the thousand things that always in-
sist upon being thought of at such a time.
“I wish we could have a light up here,” he said
to himself as he turned over for the twentieth time
in the vain eﬁort to go to sleep. “I’d like to look
at some things in my chest.”
There was no rule against having a light, except
an understood law made by the men themselves; for
when they went to bed they were tired, and a light
kept them awake. He had had some experience
with striking a light on one or two occasions, and
knew how many objections were generally raised.
First there would come a call from one corner,
“Oh, put out that light!” Then directly a ques-
tion from some other cot, “ Say, young fellow, why
don’t you go to sleep?” And after a while, par-
ticularly if Hoover happened to be present, a boot
was very likely to come ﬂying toward the candle,
aimed with great care, however, not to hit it.
But this time Hoover was out on patrol, and so
was Henry Turner, and the Captain of course was
in his own room. Besides Tom, the only ones in
the big room were Waterhouse, Hawthorn, and
Ackerley. He listened for some time, till he was


186 THE BEACH PATROL.
satisﬁed by their breathing that these three were
sound asleep.
“I believe I’ll risk it, anyhow,” he said to him-
self. “If anybody wakes up, I can put it out.”
Very cautiously he got out of bed and stepped
lightly over to the wash-stand, where the candle
always stood. In a moment he had a light, and
carried it back to his own place, standing it on
the chair beside -his chest.
His fancied resemblance to a burglar, gliding
noiselessly about the room in the middle of the
night, brought a smile to his face. It did not need
much romance in his composition to tell him that
that was a strange situation for him to be in: in
the attic of a Life-Saving Station on a stormy
December night, the rain beating hard upon the
roof two or three feet above his head, the wind
howling, and all his room-mates soundly sleeping.
“It’s a queer ‘sort of a world, anyhow,” he
thought, “and I suppose queer things happen to
everybody. But I should like to know how things
are going to turn out for me; whether I’m going
to be a Life-Saver always, or a sailor, or what?
But never mind, Tom Perry; if you could read
the future, you’d be too smart to live in this world
with other people.”
He raised the lid of his chest, and one of the ﬁrst
things he saw was the letter from Taylor & Tillforth,
the New York lawyers.
“Now that’s one of the queer things,” he said to


A BURNING COTTON STEAMER. 187
himself. “ We answered that letter early last sum-
mer, but we’ve never heard another word from them.
Why should they be making inquiries about my
father and me? And how could our answering the
letter prove of great beneﬁt to my father’s heirs?
Well, it’s not been of much beneﬁt so far, not even
enough to get an answer from them.
“That packet father left for me is another queer
thing,” he continued. “Of course I don’t believe
there’s anything valuable in it, or he wouldn’t have
had us keep it unopened so long. But a fellow can’t
help thinking about it once in a while. I suppose
George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte thought
of a great many things that we don’t read about in
their biographies. That of itself is another queer
thing: can a fellow always help what he thinks
about? I think this is a bad night to be out, and
I couldn’t help thinking that if I wanted to.
“And it’s strange about Mr. Farnsworth and
Faith, why they are so kind to me. My going out
to the yacht didn’t amount to anything, and that
cannot possibly be the reason. I declare, there’s
too many mysterious things about me. I don’t like
it. However, all I’ve got to do is to keep pushing
and pay no attention to them. They’ll get tired of
being mysteries after a while, I suppose, and come
out and show themselves. I’m not going to — ”
What he was not going to do will have to remain
with the other mysteries, for at that moment he was
startled, to put it mildly, or in other words, fright-


188 THE BEACH PATROL.
ened half out of his wits, by a great shout from
Waterhouse’s cot.
“Take in the slack! In with it, men! Now;
all to-geth-er ! ”
Waterhouse was half sitting up in bed, trying to
rub the remains of a troubled dream out of his eyes
with his knuckles.
“ Oh, is that you, Tom?” he soon asked. “ Why,
I thought—humph—I must have been dreaming.
How’s the weather?”
“Still pretty bad, I should say from the sound,”
Tom answered. “I think I’ll slip on some clothes
and go up to the lookout and see how things
look.”
“It wouldn’t do any harm,” WVaterhouse grunted ;
and Tom proceeded to half dress himself.
There was no doubt in his mind, when he reached
the lookout, that the storm was still at work. The
gale made him hold tight to the railing, and the rain
drenched him in a minute. What he could see was
absolutely nothing, and what he could hear was just
the surf breaking on the beach, and the wind whis-
tling past the ﬂag-staff.
After a few moments of this he turned to descend
the stairs, and was even down two or three steps,
when something caught his ear that made him pause
and listen again. Could that be a steamer’s whistle
that he heard, or was the wind playing tricks around
the staff? He put his hands up to both ears and
listened, and was sure he heard it again. At least,


A BURNING COTTON STEAIIIER. I89
he was reasonably sure of it; but it was far away,
and very faint.
“ I’ll get Ezra to come up and see what he thinks,”
he said to himself.
But when he reached the room, Waterhouse was
sound asleep again.
“Well, if I have to call anybody, I’d better call
the Captain,” he said, “for he will have to be called
anyhow.”
He knocked gently at the Captain’s door, and
the Captain was up in an instant, and had the door
open.
“ I was just up on the lookout, Captain,” he said,
“and thought I heard a steamer whistle. It was
very faint, but I heard it a second time, so I thought
I had better come and tell you.”
“That’s right,” the Captain exclaimed. He was
pulling on his clothes already. “ You run, Tom, and
bring me a Coston signal.”
When Tom returned with the signal, the Captain
was up on the lookout, listening with both ears.
“ You were right about it,” Captain Powers said;
“that’s a steamer, no doubt of it. There! did you
hear that ? ”
Yes, Tom heard it again; and he knew what the
Captain meant by holding out his hand. Tom put
the signal in its holder and handed it over.
“I can’t tell just what is the matter,” the Captain
said as the ﬁery red light blazed up, “for the vessel
is certainly far enough out to clear the bar. But she


I90 THE BEACH PATROL.
will see our light, at any rate. You haven’t seen
any signals from the beach patrol, have you ? ”
No, Tom said, he had seen no other light. And
the Captain, keeping his eyes open for an answer to
his signal, told him to go down and call Myron
Hawthorn.
“We need not call the rest till we see what is
needed,” he said.' “The vessel may possibly have
whistled without needing assistance; but I am afraid
something is wrong with her.” '
Within the next ﬁfteen minutes Tom and Myron
burned two more lights on the lookout, and made
frequent reports to the Captain; but they saw no
answering light. Then Henry Turner and Wax
Hoover came running in. They had heard no whis-
tle, but the signals had called them back to the
station.
At four o’clock in the morning, the hour for Tom
to go out on the south patrol and Ackerley on the
north, there was no change in the situation, except
that the rain had ceased and the wind gone down a
little; they knew that there was a steamer somewhere
out in the darkness, but she had burned no lights.
The Captain cautioned both the patrolmen to be very
watchful, and they started out on their long and
lonely walks.
Tom had made one round trip to the point and
back, and was nearly down to Andrew Carter’s
cottage the second time, before there was light
enough for him to see anything. Then the blackness


A BURNING COTTON STEAIVER. I91
began to turn to gray, and as the gray lightened he
saw a big black spot far out on the water—at least
four or ﬁve miles out, he thought. He could make
out nothing else, but that was enough. That black
spot was a vessel; and he started for the station at
his very best pace.
‘As he sped along the beach the light increased,
and he saw that the vessel was a steamer, and much
nearer shore than he had thought—not more than
two and one-half or three miles. And presently he
saw a ﬂag run up on the station’s staff, showing that
the vessel had been seen from there too.
“ Do you want assistance?” the ﬂag said; Tom knew
the meanings of the ﬂags now, and he watched the
steamer as well as he could to see what answer she
would give. But not a sign of a ﬂag did she show.
When he reached the station, he found Captain
Powers out on the beach with his glass.
“What do you make her out, sir?” he asked.
“ She is on ﬁre!” the Captain answered. “ I can
see the smoke coming through the closed hatches and
through the cabin. But I do not make out why she
answers none of our signals. She has not been
abandoned, for I can see at least one or two men on
deck.”
All the men knew by this time that there was a
burning steamer just off the beach; and a mysteri-
ous steamer that would not answer signals, although
some of her crew were clearly on board.
For the next ten minutes or more every man was


I92 THE BEACH PATROL.
ready to spring for his post as soon as the order
came that they were sure would come, the familiar
order to put on cork jackets and launch the surf-
boat. And it did come, and away went the boat
into the water, and out sped the Life-Savers to the
steamer, which, as they could see now without the
glass, was smoking both fore and aft.
“ On board, there ! ” Captain Powers hailed, when
they were close enough. On all the big deck only
two men were visible, looking over the port rail.
“What ship is this?”
“ The Glengarry,” one of the men answered ; “New
Orleans for Liverpool, cotton-loaded and on ﬁre.
Stand by us, will you?”
“Where are your crew?” the Captain asked.
“ Taken off last night by an American bark,” was
the reply. “Only the two of us left on board, and
we are waiting for low tide, to beach her. We are
looking for salvage.”


CHAPTER XII.
NED DARLING or THE “GLENGARRY.”
IT was not strange that upon hearing this remark-
able report from the burning steamer, Tom was
too much surprised to do more than sit and look at
his companions for the next minute or so. Even
Captain Powers hardly knew what to say or do at
ﬁrst. It seemed almost beyond belief that two men
should stay on board a burning steamer, a vessel so
badly damaged that even her officers had abandoned
her, just for the sake of the salvage they might earn
by running her on the beach.
“ Better let us take you oﬁ,” Captain Powers soon
said. “ You look in pretty bad order.”
“No, sir!” one of the two on board answered;
and they saw now that he was hardly more than a
boy—a rosy-cheeked English boy of perhaps Tom’s
age. “ We’re too near the beach for that. We can
stand it an hour or two longer, and by that time we
can get her nose into the sand.”
“ We’re pretty well cooked, sir,” said the older
of the two on board, speaking with a strong Scotch
accent. “These decks are hot as an oven, and the
'93


I94 THE BEACH PATROL.
soles of our feet are done to a turn. I’m the second
engineer, sir, but I couldn’t keep up steam much
longer. The heat down in the ﬁre-room is some-
thing fearful, and no man could stand it there more
than a minute at a time.”
The order to pull up closer and board the steamer
was precisely what Tom had been hoping for. A
burning cotton steamer was attraction enough for
any young Life-Saver, but the sight of a young Eng-
lishman of his own age, standing like Casabianca
on the burning deck, made him more anxious than
ever.
“Why, you are in a bad way!” was Captain
Powers’ exclamation, as he sprang on deck, and
found that the two sailors were standing on a little
platform they had made of some loose boards. The
iron deck was so hot that he could hardly touch his
hand to it, and the under sides of the boards were
charred. There was not much smoke escaping, be-
cause every vent-hole had been carefully closed; but
the hot deck and sides told plainly enough of the
terrible furnace raging under their feet.
“Hello!” said the young Englishman, as Tom
climbed aboard; “do they have boys in the Life-
Saving Crews in this country?”
“Hello!” said Tom, coolly unstrapping his cork
jacket, “ do they man their steamers with boys over
your way?”
This was as good an introduction as two young
toilers of the sea could need, and a minute later they
H
- X


NED DARLING OF THE “GLENGARRI/.” I95
were laughing and shaking hands, and the English-
man was saying that his name was Ned Darling, and
that he came from Plymouth.
“ We might as well get acquainted,” he added. “ I
suppose you fellows will help us beach the ship; or
if anything happens, I suppose you’ll setlus ashore?”
“ Well, that’s a cool way to look at it ! ” Tom
laughed. “ I don’t know whether we have any busi-
ness to help you beach a steamer.”
“ Oh, yes you have!” Ned answered very decidedly.
“ She’s an abandoned ship, and we’re a salvage crew
in possession. That’s good law, Mr. Tom Perry, and
your Captain will tell you so.” ~
As if in answer to his words, Captain Powers and
the Scotch engineer stepped up at this moment and
interrupted them.
“The lad will tell you how it’s happened, sir,” the
Scotchman said; “he’s a better gift of talking than
I have.”
“We left New Orleans nine days ago, sir,” the
young Englishman promptly began, “loaded with
cotton and bound for home. On the fourth day out
we found we were on ﬁre. You know how it is with
baled cotton, sir; no blaze, but just a smoke and a
smell of something burning. It didn’t seem very bad,
but it grew worse and worse, and after a day or two
of it the decks began to feel hot. Then we turned
a stream of water into the hold, sir, and ﬂooded her
as much as we dared; but that did no good.
“ Well, sir, about forty hours ago the master made


196 THE BEACH PATROL.
up his mind we were a gone ship and cargo, and he
put her about and headed her for the American coast.
You see everything was hot by that time. And some-
time after midnight an American bark heard our
signal and bore down on us. Then there was a con-
sultation in a hurry, and all of a sudden they made
up their minds to abandon her. You see she’s a
pretty old ship, sir, not very valuable, and the cargo
badly damaged. So they left her rather than take
any more chances.”
“ But you two!” Captain Powers exclaimed, won-
dering at this strange story. “How do you come to
be on board?”
“ We just stayed, sir,” Darling replied. “ The second
engineer and I had got acquainted, and as the men
were leaving he whispered to me, ‘ Here’s a chance to
make a few hundred pounds, lad, if you’ve got the
pluck to stay on board with me, and can keep up
steam enough to beach her, and there’ll be some-
thing saved out of her.’ ”
“Yes!” the engineer interrupted; “and the boy
was the only one who did have the pluck to stay,
for I’d asked more than one before I went to him.
Then when it came to the point there was nobody to
prevent our staying, for the master was not the sort
to be the last man to leave his ship, sir. So here we
are; and I think there’d be more along of us if
they’d known we were so close to shore.”
Within an hour after the arrival of the Life-Saving
Crew the Glengarry’s engine was started up, and she


NED DARLING 01-" THE “c‘1'.ENcARRY.” 197
was headed for a point on the beach that Captain
Powers thought would be safest for her. But it took
sharp eyes to see that she was moving at all. On,
on she crawled, as slowly as ever a vessel could, till
her cutwater ran into the sand and she came to a
full stop. Then the Scotch engineer shut off steam
and ran out of the engine-room, declaring that he
could not have stood the heat there a moment longer.
But the burning steamer was safely beached, and
likely to yield a rich reward to her two salvors.
There was something about the young Englishman
that attracted Tom. He must be a brave fellow to
risk his life so, and he took everything so coolly, and
was so ready when there was work to be done. But
at that moment there was so much work to be done
that stopping to talk was out of the question. Cap-
tain Powers understood the plan the Scotch engineer
had formed, and kept his men busy helping to carry
it out.
First the engine ﬁres had to be dumped, and that
took time, making a dash below and then running
up for a breath of air. Then some movable things
in the little cabin that might be damaged by water
were taken out and carried ashore in the surf-boat.
And there was breakfast to be eaten in the station,
and a dozen more things to be done before the time
came for actually extinguishing the ﬁre in the cotton,
which was what Tom wanted to see done. But he
followed his excellent plan of waiting to see rather
than asking questions.


198 THE BEACH PA TROL.
“Now stand by, men! ” Captain Powers ordered,
when the low tide had changed into a high tide again,
and the crew were once more on the burning stea1ner’s
deck, all the after part of which was covered with
water. “ Watch the engineer, and when he gives the
signal, off hatches! And move lively, or the smoke
will smother you.”
“Let her go!” the engineer shouted, giving at
the same time a ﬁnal wrench to the only sea-valve
that the ﬁre would let him reach.
Off ﬂew the hatches, and out burst a terriﬁc vol-
ume of rank black smoke, with a little ﬂame, but
not much.
Then the water began to pour down the open
hatches, making the smoke still thicker and blacker.
But that was only for a moment; even the mass of
smouldering cotton,could not stand having the whole
Atlantic Ocean poured upon it. Gradually the black
smoke changed to a mixture of smoke and steam,
and a rank odor of wet scorched cotton ﬁlled the air.
Every minute they could feel the hot deck grow
cooler.
Tom soon grasped the meaning of this, and it
ﬁlled him with delight.
“ Did you ever see a neater job ! ” he cried, seizing
Dave Ackerley by the arm. “ You see what the
plan is, don’t you? They beach the ship at low
tide, then open everything and let the water run
in as the tide rises. Of course that puts out the
ﬁre; it couldn’t help it. Then as the tide falls the


200 THE BEACH PATROL.
‘.2
and her own steam will do that job for us. Then
maybe you can lend us a man or two, Captain, to
take her up the coast to some good harbor.”
“Well, you’re a canny Scot, and no mistake!”
Captain Powers laughed. “Ain’t you satisﬁed with
getting your ship safely on the beach? You can’t
take her away again quite so easily, for there are a
few laws in this country to be complied with ﬁrst.
I could not let any of my men go to sea in her till
she has been surveyed and pronounced seaworthy, at
any rate. The best thing you can do is to telegraph
the steamer’s agents at New Orleans, and you may
be sure they will look after their ship. You and the
lad are sure of your salvage on her anyhow, so you
don’t need to worry.”
Mr. Andy McDougall’s face grew some inches longer
when he heard this, for he had hoped to sail the
steamer into port in grand style; but he immediately
began to inquire the way to the nearest telegraph
oﬂice.
“ You can go out with the north patrolman at
eight o’clock,” Captain Powers told him, “and he
will show you the way up to Atlantic City.”
“And maybe you would like to take a walk with
me in the other direction,” Tom said to Ned Darling.
“ I go on the south patrol at eight o’clock.”
“Why, nothing would suit me better!” Ned de-
clared. “After being aboard ship for a week or two
a fellow almost forgets that he has feet or legs.”
O D
Tom was not the only one of the crew who had


NED DARLING OF THE “GLENGARRY.” 2OI
taken a fancy to Ned Darling. There was a -frank,
honest look in his ruddy face that they all liked;
and although he had just helped to accomplish a
brave feat, he did no boasting. He was a little
smaller than Tom, but very strongly built. The
Life-Savers had heard the story of the young Eng-
lish midshipman who was left in charge of the ﬂag-
ship on the English coast one night, while all his
superior officers went ashore, and who, seeing a dan-
gerous storm coming, instantly set the signals that
ordered the whole ﬂeet out to sea; and it seemed to
them that this young Englishman was quite capable
of such a daring feat.
“This is quite an honor to be allowed to walk
with you, Mr. Tom Perry,” the young Englishman
said, when they were out on the dark sands together.
“ I’ve heard a great many things about you to-day;
how you swam out to a yacht in a storm, and how
you are learning to be a great navigator, and all that.”
“Humbug!” Tom replied; “you’re trying to guy
me. When a fellow sticks to a burning ship the
way you did, that’s real pluck. I don’t see how you
could do it.”
“ Don’t you ? ” Ned laughed. “ Well, I don’t mind
telling you that I was about the worst scared fellow
you ever saw when the crew went off and left us.
I was fairly shaking,in my boots. You see I had
only about a minute to think it over in, so I had to
think quick. And I’ll tell you what decided me.
I had made quite a failure in this country, and I


202 THE BEACH PATROL.
was sneaking home without any money—and they
need some money over home pretty bad. Then this
chance came, and I said to myself, ‘If I don’t get
home at all, it won’t be any worse than going home
a failure;’ so I just stuck, and we got through all
right. If it hadn’t been for the mother and sister
at home, I’d never have taken the risk.”
“ Just the same all over the world, ain’t it?” Tom
said slowly, as if thinking very hard. “Young fel-
lows like ourselves in every country trying to make
our way. How do you mean about your being a
failure over here —nothing crooked, I’m sure?”
“Do you see anything green in my eye?” Ned
asked very promptly. “Do you think I’m such a
fool? If I hadn’t honesty enough to be honest, I
think I’d have sense enough to be, anyhow. Why,
Perry, don’t you know that a young chap like you
or me might better put a rope around his neck and
swing himself off the main yard, than do any-
thing crooked? Oh no, it was nothing of that kind.
After my father died, I shipped before the mast and
made several voyages, and then I got a chance with
an importing house in New Orleans at eight dollars
a week and my board, so I could send some money
home to my mother and sister. But my ﬁrm failed,
and I couldn’t ﬁnd anything else to do; and I was
working my way home as a sort of ‘ general utility
man’ in the Glengarry when this thing happened.
Now I can go home and look old Smeaton Tower in
the face again.”


NED DARLING OF THE “GLENGARRY.” 203
“ Smeaton Tower?” Tom asked ; “ what is that ? ”
“ There is no such thing,” Ned laughed, “ only we
like to think there is. I told you I come from
Plymouth, didn’t I? Well, six miles out in front
of Plymouth stands the great Eddystone Lighthouse;
you must have heard of that, sure. The ﬁrst light-
house on that rock was built by a man named Smea-
ton, so it was called Smeaton Tower. The old tower
disappeared long ago; but we Plymouth folk still
call the new lighthouse Smeaton Tower. I don’t
think a Plymouth boy would dare go home and look
at dear old Smeaton if he had done anything to dis-
grace himself.”
“Well, now you can go home with some money
in your pocket,” said Tom. “ You and the engineer
ought to get a great deal of salvage out of that
steamer and her cargo.”
“Yes, but I’m afraid it will take us a long time to
get it,” Ned answered. “It’s awfully slow work;
I’ve seen such cases over in Plymouth. It goes into
the hands of an admiralty court, you know, and the
court decides what percentage we are entitled to.
Then everything has to be sold, and after a while
we get our money. And being a stranger in these
parts, I’ll have a kind of a sort of a hard pull till we
get it, I expect.”
“Don’t say you’re a stranger, Ned!” Tom ex-
claimed; and being more bashful than the young
Englishman he might not have gone on to say what
he wanted, if they had not been out on the beach, in


NED DARLING OF THE “GLE./VGA1\’RY.” 205
that his companion had better not undertake the last
four miles.
“ You must be well tired out,” said he. “Go up
stairs and take my bed; and when Dave Ackerley
turns out at midnight you can take his.”
“Oh, I’m going to see the thing through!” Ned
declared. “It’s only fun to walk on this smooth
beach.”
Tom had his hand on the knob, and as he opened
the door he was surprised to ﬁnd several people in
the sitting-room—Oaptain Powers, a11d the Scotch
engineer, and a strange gentleman who was ' too
stylishly dressed to be one of the Life-Savers.
“This is the other member of the salvage crew,”
Captain Powers said to the stranger, nodding his
head toward Ned as he and Tom entered. “ This is
Mr. Norton, Darling, the Underwriters’ agent.”
Ned was too much surprised at ﬁrst to do more
than take off his cap and say “Good evening” to
the stranger.
“ I came very rapidly from New Orleans, didn’t I?”
Mr. Norton laughed. “It was about three hours ago,
I think, McDougall, that you sent your telegram.
So there has not been much waste of time.”
“ No, we do things very fast in this country,” Cap-
tain Powers said; and he laughed too.
“ I have explained to your companion how I hap-
pen to arrive so soon,” Mr. Norton continued, “so
I will repeat it to you. His telegram went to the
agents in New Orleans, and they immediately wired


206 THE BEACII PATROL.
the Underwriters in New York—for of course the
steamer is insured. I happened to be spending a
week in Atlantic City with my wife, and knowing
that, the Underwriters telegraphed me to come here
and take charge of the case. And here I am.-
“ Now, gentlemen,” he went on, “the vessel is in
the hands of the Underwriters, and you have nothing
more to do with her. You have done your part, and
have done it well. I will only add, as a friend, that
your safest course will be to secure a good lawyer to
look after your interests. Of course you have a
substantial elai1n for salvage, and you will need good
legal advice.” ~
As the ship was in other hands, there was nothing
to prevent Ned from ﬁnishing his long walk with
Tom on the beach.
“I think I can be of a little assistance to you
already,” Tom said, when they were out with the
lantern again. “ You can’t be too careful about the
lawyer you get, you know. Sometimes the lawyer
gets all the proﬁts, and the client has nothing left
but a bill of costs. Now I can tell you of two ways
of getting a good lawyer. There is a good one in
Way’s Landing, the town I live in, twenty miles up
the river; Judge Naylor, a great friend of mine and
a ﬁne man. That is one way. The other way is to
ask Mr. Farnsworth (he owns the yacht I sail on in
the summer) to recommend one. He is in Boston,
but we could soon get word to him, and I am sure
he would know.”


NED DARLING OF THE “GLENGARRY/’ 207
“Good for you!” Ned exclaimed. “And if you
don’t mind, I will get you to ask your friend, Mr.
Farnsworth. The lawyer up the river might not
understand these admiralty cases, you know.”
When they reached the station on their last trip,
the north patrolman was just in with a package of
mail from Atlantic City.
“Letter here for you, Perry,” he said.
It was in Aunt Hannah’s handwriting; and when
they were up stairs and Tom was seated on his chest,
he opened it.
“Now try not to disappoint me,” were the ﬁrst
words to catch his eye. “ I do so much want to have
my boy spend his Christmas at home.”
“Oh, what an aunty!” he exclaimed. “I want
you to know her, Ned. If I can only get Captain
Powers to let me off for a dayor two, you shall go
up to Way’s Landing with me to see an American
Christmas.”


CHAPTER XIII.
7
A CHRISTMAS IN wAY S LANDING.
“ OH, Tom, I was so afraid you wouldn’t come! I
didn’t write you anything about it, but I bought
the turkey over two months ago, and kept him penned
out in the yard eating corn till he grew so fat he
could hardly stand.”
“Why, of course I’d come, Aunty, if I could
possibly get away. And I’ve brought a friend along.
This is Ned Darling, from England; my aunt, Miss
Hannah Perry, Ned.”
“ I’m sure I’m very glad to see any friend of my
boy’s,” Miss Hannah said, holding out a hand to each
of them. “And he mustn’t mind if I make a goose of
myself (now none of your jokes, Tom; I didn’t say
a turkey)—a goose of myself with my nephew to-day ;
for you know this is Christmas, when all the big boys
have to be little again, and be treated like children.
But maybe you don’t know about Christmas over in
your country, Mr. Ned Darling.”
“Oh, don’t we, though!” Ned laughed. “Why,
we Englishmen think we’re the only people who
know how to keep Christmas properly.”
208


l
THIS IS NED DARLING, FROM ENGLAND
*2


2 IO THE BEA CH PA TROL.
well what all this meant; and they both started for
the old room, followed by Aunt Hannah.
“ Look at that, now! ” Tom exclaimed, as he saw
what had happened in his room. “I should say
Santa Claus had been here. Upon my word! a fat
stocking hanging from each front bedpost, and a big
package on the bed! How in the world am I ever
going to thank the old fellow for all this? You’ll
just have to thank him for me, Aunt Hannah, when
you see him; and just give him this; and this; ” —and
so saying he gave his delighted aunt something on
each cheek that that prudent lady must have found
it very embarrassing to pass along to such a digniﬁed
old gentleman. 
“ Oh, go ’long! ” she said, pretending to push him
away. “You’d better see what he’s brought you
ﬁrst; maybe it’s nothing but a lot of turnips and
potatoes.”
“Ah, look at that!” Tom cried, as he began to
empty the nearest stocking. “A pocket knife!
Ain’t that a beauty, Ned? And this? Oh, this is
a ﬁne new pocketbook, in the little box. And this
must be the turnips and potatoes, in the paper bag.
No, this is the real old Christmas stuff, the horses
and soldiers and rabbits and things made of red and
yellow candy. It would hardly be Christmas with-
out those things, would it, Ned? Now we’ll see
about this other stocking.
“Why,” he went on, “here’s a necktie; two of
’em; three; just exactly what I needed, too. And


212 THE BEACH PATROL.
please his aunt to imagine him her own little Tom
again, and when it was once begun both boys rather
liked it—for no fellow turns into a man quite as
fast in his own home as he likes to in the eyes of
strangers.
There was something in the tone of Ned’s voice,
as well as in the words, that set Tom to thinking;
a1|d it was not long before he shocked his aunt by
announcing that it was positively necessary for him
to go down street for a few minutes. Why he should
have to leave her almost at the ﬁrst moment, Aunt
Hannah could not understand, and he could not at
the moment explain.
“But I’ll be back in ten or ﬁfteen minutes,” he
promised. “ Ned can come along, and that will give
you a little chance to roast the turkey. I Want to
get into Herkimer’s store for a minute. Of course
they won’t be open on Christmas, but I think they
will let me in through the house.”
Aunt Hannah protested, but Tom insisted, and in
a minute or two more he and Ned were walking
down the sandy street. Before they had gone a
hundred yards, however, they were stopped by hear-
ing loud calls in Miss Hannah’s voice :
“ Tom ! Tom ! ”
She was out in the front yard, and when they
stopped she began to run toward them, and Tom
walked back to meet her.
“I just wanted to ask you about the turnips,
Tom,” she said, when they were close enough. “I


A CHRISTMAS IN WAl/"S LANDING. 215
brought a burning cotton ship ashore a few days
ago, so he is not afraid of a tree.”
“ What, not the Glengarry? ” Mr. Thompson
asked.
“Yes, sir, the Glengarry,” Tom replied. “There
were two men on board, and Ned was one of them.”
“You—don’t—say! ” Mr. Thompson exclaimed.
“I have read all about it in the papers, but I didn’t
expect to meet one of the men in Way’s Landing.
I am glad to know you, sir; I wish you a merry
Christmas. You must bring your friend to see me,
Perry. He will be welcomed in every house in
Way’s Landing, you may be sure.”
Ned managed to stammer his thanks and to return
the compliments of the season; but he was glad to
escape, after putting on his coats. -
“Now what .are you going to do with it, after
taking so much trouble for it ? ” Tom asked, looking
at the mistletoe.
“ Why, hang it up in the house, to be sure,” Ned
replied. “We always have it around at Christmas
at home. I’ll ﬁnd some good place to hang it.”
The good place to hang it was not lacking on this
occasion, for they found a small iron hook in the
middle of the parlor ceiling, where perhaps a lamp
had once hung. Ned stood on a chair and hung the
mistletoe to the hook, and was down just a second
or two before Aunt Hannah entered the room.
“My, what a long time you were gone! ” she be-
gan. “ I don’t see what in the world —oh! oh! oh !


218 THE BEACH PATROL.
she added, “be sure you take them into the sitting-
room. I’ll have no young ladies in the parlor while
that abominable mistletoe thing hangs there.”
When Miss Hannah at length called them to
dinner, which was spread in the sitting-room, Ned
was surprised to ﬁnd two packages lying by his
plate. .“ For Mr. Ned Darling. Merry Christmas,
from Miss Hannah Perry,” was written on one ; and
on the other was simply “ Merry Christmas, Ned.
From Tom.”
“Well, to think that Santa Claus remembered me
too!” he exclaimed. “He must have crossed the
ocean on purpose, I suppose; but I hope it wasn’t
on a cotton ship.”
He picked up Miss Hannah’s package ﬁrst and
opened it, and found in the box a beautiful pair of
leather gloves, lined with warm wool. And in
Tom’s bundle was a handsome memorandum book
with a steel clasp.
That was the secret of Tom’s visit to Herkimer’s
store in the morning. He could not be having such
a ﬁne Christmas himself without getting some little
reminder of the day for the friend who was so far
away from home and family.
“ I declare, I don’t know how to thank you both
for these pretty things,” Ned said; and his counte-
nance showed that he was speaking the exact truth.
“But I know a lady and a little girl over in Plym-
outh who would thank you much better than I can,
if they only knew about it.”


A CHRISTMAS IN WAY’S LANDING. 219
“I hope you have let them know where you are,”
Miss Hannah said, as she stood up and began to
carve the turkey with great dexterity.
“ Yes, indeed,” Ned replied; “that was almost the
ﬁrst thing I did when I got ashore. I was in a hurry
to tell them of my good fortune.”
Aunt Hannah by this time had built a young
pyramid on one of her great dinner plates. There
was a foundation of sliced turkey and dressing, and
over this and beside it were strata of potatoes, tur-
nips, boiled onions, pickles, celery, and cranberry
sauce. She was making the potato stratum a little
thicker, when Tom laid his hand on her arm.
“Look here, Aunt Hannah!” he expostulated;
“you don’t really expect Ned Darling or any other
one fellow to eat all that, do you?”
“ Eat it ! ” Miss Hannah replied, heaping on another
big spoonful of potatoes; “ of course he’ll eat it. And
you’ll eat another dish just like it. You poor souls,
living all the time with your men cooks and dirty
kitchens, it’s not often you get a chance to eat a
proper meal, and you must make the best of it.
Pass the gravy, Tom.”
The heaped-up plates looked formidable at the be-
ginning, but Miss Hannah noticed with great satis-
faction that both the boys were ready for a second
helping of turkey before they ﬁnished.
“ You must tell my aunt about the Glengarry, Ned,
and how you helped bring her ashore,” Tom said
while they were eating. '


220 THE BEACH PATROL.
Ned told the whole story in a very interesting
way; but modestly, without taking the credit to
himself.
“ And you will make a great deal of money out of
that, I hope,” Miss Perry said when he ﬁnished. She
had been familiar all her life with the practice of
assisting distressed vessels for the sake of the
salvage.
“I don’t know whether it will be a great deal,
ma’am,” Ned answered, “but I think we ought to
have something from it. Tom has telegraphed to
his friend Mr. Farnsworth to ask him to recommend
a good lawyer, and we hope to hear from him soon.”
“ And what are you going to do with your money
after you get it?” Miss Hannah went on. “Not
spend it foolishly, I hope?”
“I hope not, ma’am,” Ned replied. “I have al-
ways found money too hard to get, to spend it fool-
ishly. My father used to tell me that I could earn
or make just so much in my whole life; and that
whatever I threw away was just so much taken out
of that.”
“ That’s so! ” Tom exclaimed. “I never looked at
it in that light before.”
“I should like to buy a little real estate,” Ned
went on, “if I get enough money for that. Oh, you
needn’t laugh, Tom ; a fellow can buy real estate
without having so awfully much money. It is the
safest investment I know, and if it is managed right
it is one of the most proﬁtable. What I have in


A CHRISTMAS IN WAY’S LANDING. 221
mind is a lot or two in the suburbs of some growing
town. My father bought some lots in Lipson, a
suburb of Plymouth, and got them very cheap. In
a few years the town grew up around them, and they
became quite valuable. If it had not been for that,
mother would be much worse oﬁ than she is. Now
if I only have brains enough to pick out the right
place, where the value is pretty sure to increase, I
don’t see why I can’t do the same thing.”
Tom was deep in thought by the time Ned had
ﬁnished this little lecture on dealing in real estate.
He had great conﬁdence in Ned’s ability in most
matters, and it was a curious thing that the conver-
sation had turned to a subject in which he was very
much interested. There was a piece of land that he
knew he could buy at a low price, and that might some
day become very valuable. He had often thought that
it would be worth while to buy it; but he had hesi-
tated about speaking of it to any of his friends, even
to ask their advice, believing that they would laugh
at him and think him foolish.
“ Now, Miss Perry,” Ned said, after the last possi-
ble mouthful had been eaten, “Tom and I made a
solemn agreement this morning, and we hope you
will not interfere with our carrying it out. We
concluded that after you had cooked this dinner you
would have done as much work as anybody’s aunt
ought to do in one day, and that we were going to
put on aprons and go out in the kitchen and wash
the dishes.”


A CHRIST./IIAS IN WA Y’S LANDING. 223
It was an almost unheard-of thing for the hack to
go up that street, where there were so few houses;
and Miss Hannah stepped to the sitting-room window
to see.
“ Why, it looks to me very much as if it was com-
ing here,” she said, “from the way it has drawn out
to this side. Yes, it is certainly coming here; it has
stopped.”
By this time both boys were by her side, but not
too close to the window, on account of their aprons.
The driver jumped down and opened the carriage
door, and out stepped a gentleman, who turned to
help out the other occupant.
“ Oh, unpin me, quick, somebody!” Tom cried;
“ it’s Mr. Farnsworth and Faith!”


TOM BECOMES A LANDED PROPRIETOR. 225
undertake your business, it will not be for pay, but
entirely out of friendship for my young friend here.”
“Oh, isn’t that a stroke of good fortune!” Tom
broke in. “To think that Mr. Farnsworth would
come all this distance to see you, though! And how
kind it is in—”
“Well, never mind that,” Mr. Farnsworth inter-
rupted; “let me hear your story, young man, and
then I can tell you whether you have a good claim
or not. That is,” he added, “if you care to put it in
my hands.”
“ I should rather say I did, sir,” Ned answered, “ if
you will be kind enough to take charge of it.” And
he went on and told in his plain straightforward way
the whole story of the Glengarry’s mishap and of his
share in bringing her ashore.
It was a very plain case, the lawyer decided, after
hearing the story, and there ought to be little trouble
about it.
“Is the ship able to ﬂoat?” he asked. “Is she
still seaworthy ? ”
“Yes, sir,” Ned replied; “her hull is very little
damaged, and I think she could go to sea as she is.”
“Then we will put in a claim for salvage and libel
her at once,” the lawyer announced.
“Libel!” Tom and Ned repeated in chorus; and
even Aunt Hannah looked frightened. “Don’t be
alarmed, friends,” Mr. Farnsworth went on, with a
smile. “Libelling a ship is a very different matter
from libelling a person. It is only one of our legal


239 THE BEACH PATROL.
real estate, are you? Well, I’m glad to see you
keep your eyes open, my boy. How much does
Carter want for the land ?”
“Two hundred and ﬁfty dollars for the whole
thing, sir,” Tom answered. “ That is ﬁfty dollars an
acre; for of course the hut is not worth anything
much.”
“ And you have the money to buy it?” '
“ Oh, yes, sir, I have the money,” Tom answered.
“ Then if I were in your place, I should own this
point before I went to bed to-night,” Mr. Farns-
worth said emphatically. “Why, it’s one of the
ﬁnest spots on the New Jersey coast; high and dry,
ocean on one side, bay on the other. Two hundred
and ﬁfty dollars for such a piece of land is no price
at all.”
“ That’s what I thought, sir,” Tom replied; “ but
I was afraid I might be mistaken.”
“Not a bit of it,” Mr. Farnsworth went on.
“ You will soon double your money on it. But I am
glad you asked my advice; for I suppose you don’t
know how to go about such a thing, and I will tell
you.”
“I wasn’t quite sure about how to go at it, sir,”
Tom admitted.
“ Well, I ought to charge you ﬁfty dollars for the
advice,” Mr. Farnsworth laughed, “ but l’ll let you
off this time. In the ﬁrst place, when you are doing
such business, you want to keep your eyes open and
your mouth shut. Don’t tell everybody what you


TOM BECOMES A LANDED PROPRIETOR. 231
are doing. Better yet, don’t tell anybody, except
those people who ought to know.
“In the next place,” he continued, “you are an
infant.”
“Oh, papa!” Faith interrupted; “how can you
say that ! ”
“Certainly,” Mr. Farnsworth resumed; “and you
are an infant, too. Both infants, legally, till you
are of age. Tom can’t make a valid contract now,
because he is nobody at all. You must do it in
some one else’s name, Tom; and naturally that per-
son would be your aunt. You can arrange with
her to act as her agent.
“Now,” he went on, “assuming that you are
your aunt’s agent, you go to this man to-night
(don’t waste any time about it), and talk the matter
over with him. Perhaps he would take less for the
land. Don’t seem anxious to buy. But when you
have agreed upon a price, you offer him ﬁfty dollars
on the spot to bind the bargain, and produce a paper
for him to sign, which I will draw up for you
when we get back to the station. Have a witness
along, too, to witness the signature.
“That paper will be an agreement to sell the
premises to Miss Hannah Perry for two hundred and
ﬁfty dollars, and a receipt for ﬁfty dollars on ac-
count, the balance to be paid when the deed is
drawn up. Such an agreement is as binding as the
deed itself. There is no backing out when it is once
signed and the money paid. That is the way we


232 THE BEACII PATROL.
do such things, young man. Do you think you
understand it all?”
“Yes, sir,” Tom answered, “ I think I do. And
it was a good thing that I had sense enough to ask
your advice, too. I should have gone to Mr. Carter
and paid him what he asked; and paid it all down
on the spot, too, and just taken a receipt for it and
waited for the deed.”
' “His price would have gone up to three, hundred
dollars the minute you offered him two hundred and
ﬁfty dollars,” Mr. Farnsworth laughed, “unless he is
a very unusual sort of man. Your way is the way
all such business should be done, I will admit, if men
were only what they ought to be. But unfortunately
they are not. When a man has anything to sell he
does not consider what it is worth, but what he can
get for it. So in making a bargain we have to be on
our guard, and not appear too anxious.”
“ And you are really going to buy ”— Faith began
when they were in the carriage on the way back to
the station. But her father quickly nudged her with
his elbow and nodded toward the driver. He was too
shrewd a lawyer to let business secrets be discussed
just behind a hack-driver. 
“Well,” she went on, heeding the warning, “if
the Barracouta is ever stranded on this coast again,
I know just where I hope it will be; that’s all.”
Mr. Farnsworth and Faith had to go northward
by the afternoon train, the former promising to return
if his presence should be necessary; and as Tom’s


TOM BECOAIES A LANDED PROPRIETOR. 233
liberty included the whole of that day, he had ample
time for thinking over the business before him. The
few minutes’ talk with the lawyer had given him
quite a new .idea about such things. He did not
exactly like the way it had to be done ; it seemed to
him a little sneaky, like a cat waiting for a mouse.
It would have been much more natural to him to go
openly to Mr. Carter and offer him the money he
asked for his land, and pay it. But his small expe-
rience at bargaining showed him that that would
not do. Mr. Farnsworth was certainly right in say-
ing that in such a case Carter would increase his
price.
After the early supper he told Ned that he wanted
his company in a walk down to the point, where he
had some business to attend to.
“ Why, that’s just where I was thinking of going
myself ! ” Ned answered. “ Mr. Farnsworth says that
the engineer and I had better stay here as long as
the ship is on the beach, and of course we can’t stay
here in the station. So I thought maybe we could
arrange to stay in that little house on the point, if
the man would take us.”
“The very thing!” Tom exclaimed. “That will
be just the place for you, and Andrew Carter will be
glad to have you; and you can do your talking with
him ﬁrst, so that I can bring up my business as if it
was just accidental.”
Tom had learned already one of the ﬁrst princi-
ples of bargaining, not to appear too anxious; and


234 THE BEA CH PA TROL.
he had learned caution, too; for he did not explain
his business to Ned till they were away from the
station and walking toward the point, for fear some
of his comrades might hear of it and forestall him.
Ned’s business with Andrew Carter was soon settled.
The poor old ﬁsherman was only too glad to make a
little money by renting the one room he had to spare.
They must not expect any great luxuries on the table,
he said ; but he could promise them plenty of ﬁsh
and clams and oysters when the sea was smooth
enough.
Tom had himself under such control by this time
that he waited till they had actually got up to go
before he said a word about the land. Then with
his hand on the latch, he turned and asked carelessly:
“You haven’t sold your place yet, I suppose, Mr.
Carter ? ”
“ No, Tom, I haven’t,” the old man answered, with
a sigh. “It’s dirt cheap, too; but times are hard,
and people don’t want to lock up their money in
a strip of sand. I’m afraid it will soon be too late,
for Ellen grows weaker every day, and the doctor
has got tired of coming so far.”
“I know of a lady up in Way’s Landing,” Tom
said, still very carelessly, “ who might be induced to
buy it, I think, if she could get it very cheap.”
“Do you, though ! ” The old man caught at the
words like a drowning man at a straw. “Do you
think she would? She couldn’t want it for less than
two hundred and ﬁfty dollars for this ﬁne point, and


TO/ll BECOZIIES A LANDED PROPRIETOR. 235
3)
such a beautiful situation for a cottage or a hotel.
He made them turn back and sit down again, for
he would not let even this slim chance escape. “ Do
you think you could induce her to buy it? You
know how badly I need the money, and why I need
it. I think two hundred and ﬁfty dollars is very
cheap for ﬁve acres; but I’ll tell you what I will do,
Tom: if you can get her to buy it, I will pay you
twenty-ﬁve dollars commission on the sale.”
This set Tom to thinking very hard. Here was
a chance to buy the land for two hundred and
twenty-ﬁve dollars by accepting the commission,
which from one standpoint he was clearly entitled
to. But though he thought hard, he did not think
long.
“ It may not be business-like,” he said to himself,
“but there are other things to be thought of. No,
I hope somebody will kick me if I do. I’ll feel
mean if I take this poor fellow’s twenty-ﬁve dollars,
and it’s worth more than that for a fellow to make
himself feel mean.”
“I should not want to take any commission, Mr.
Carter,” he answered aloud. “I don’t mind telling
you that the matter rests with me; and if I felt sure
that you had a perfectly clear title, and no judg-
ments or tax claims against the property” (Mr.
Farnsworth had warned him about those things),
“why, I don’t know but I might—”
The old man had his deeds and tax receipts on the
table in an instant; and in an incredibly short time


2 36 THE BEA CH PA TROL.
Tom was counting out ﬁfty dollars in greenbacks,
and the paper the lawyer had drawn was signed, and
the signature duly witnessed by Ned Darling. An-
drew Carter’s hands shook as he counted the notes;
those greasy crumpled slips of paper look so beautiful
when they make the balance between life and death
for one of our loved ones.
The two boys walked ﬁfty yards up the beach
before either said a word ; then Ned was the ﬁrst to
speak. '
“ So you are really a landed proprietor, Tom. And
a ﬁne bit of land you have, too.”
Tom’s answer to this was not in words. He threw
himself forward on his hands and walked a half a
dozen yards up the beach with his heels in the air—
a thing he had not done before since he became
a Life-Saver.
“ Well, that’s aremarkable ceremony,” Ned laughed.
“ Is that one of the customs in transferring real estate
in this country? I’ve known a man to buy a whole
county without standing on his head over it.”
“It’s not only that,” Tom answered. “I’m glad
to have the land, of course. Funny, ain’t it, that I
should own a little place so near the station? But
I’m so awfully glad I didn’t take the poor man’s
twenty-ﬁve dollars. That would have burnt my
pocket, sure. You know his little daughter is very
sick, and nothing in the world but money for doctors
and medicines will save her life.”
“ Do you know, I was awfully glad, too, when you


TO/ll BECOIIIES A LANDED PROPRIETOR. 237
G
refused that? I was afraid at ﬁrst that you would
take it; but I ought to have known you better. ‘Give
us your paw, Tom Perry. It’s strange how the sea
has thrown two fellows together, fellows from diHer-
ent countries, who are situated so much alike. You
have your own way to make, and so have I. You
have somebody to take care of, so have I. We both
try to do the best we can. Let’s make a bargain,
Tom. You see how good your refusing that twenty-
ﬁve dollars makes us both feel. It would not have
been dishonest to take it, but it would have been a
little mean. -Let’s agree always to steer clear of
those things that are just a little mean. It will
keep us feeling better.”
“Agreed!” cried Tom ; and young America and
young England shook hands again.
But to talk about feeling good! Tom would per-
haps have walked on his hands perpetually if his eyes
had been capable of seeing through a mile of dark-
ness and through the side of Andrew Carter’s patch-
work house. If he had been equal to that feat, he
would have seen the old ﬁsherman go to his little
daughter’s room and stand in the doorway and look
at her long with moist and loving eyes before he could
say a word. He would have seen him take her gently
in his arms and clasp her to his heart. And if his
ears had been sharp enough he might have heard a
great gulp in the old man’s throat, before he said in
gentle, loving tones:
“ God has answered your old father’s prayers, little


2 38 THE BEA CH PA TROL.
one. He has not forgotten us in our trouble. Here
is the doctor; here are the medicines; here are beef-
steaks and jellies and oranges; and here are rosy
cheeks, and bright eyes, and smiles and laughter, and
health for my little sick girl.”
As the old ﬁsherman mentioned each of these good
things, he turned over the end of one of Tom’s green-
backs


A SCHOONER IN DISTRESS. 241
up stairs with the ﬁeld-glass in his hands. He made
her out a small schooner, apparently not more than
a hundred and ﬁfty tons, headed up into the wind,
with the distress flag ﬂying. -
The “What do you want?” signal was immediately
hoisted on the station pole, by the Captain’s order.
There was some delay after this, as if the schoon-
er’s men were trying to ﬁnd out by the code book
what the signal meant. Then came the unexpected
answer:
“We want a navigator.”
“A navigator!” Captain Powers exclaimed; “ why
don’t they ask me for a camel, or a railway train, or
something that’s easy to get? A Life-Saving Station
is most anything, from a boarding-house to a hospital,
but it’s not a shipping office. However, tell them to
send ashore, and we’ll see what ails them.”
“ Send a boat ashore,” was signalled from the sta-
tion pole; and after another delay the answer came,
“We can’t spare the men.”
“ Well, that’s cool ! ” said the Captain; but he
would not leave the schooner in trouble without
trying to help her.
“ Launch the surf-boat! ” came the order; and as
the sea was smooth, and there was no hard duty in
prospect,Hawthorn and Jim Hoover were left on shore.
With Turner and Waterhouse, Ackerley and Tom
Perry at the oars, and Captain Powers of course
steering, the sharp surf-boat made short work of the
two miles out to the schooner, where three men and


244 THE BEA CH PA TROL.
“Now, Perry,” the Captain said, after Ackerley
had started, “you had better make all your arrange-
ments just as if you were going sure, so as to be all
ready if a favorable reply comes. You will have
some letters to write, I suppose, and some clothes to
pack.”
“ I should like to take my chest, sir, if I go,” Tom
answered. Even in the excitement he did not forget
that it had been his grandfather’s sea-chest, and his
father’s; and in the dignity of his ﬁrst command he
wanted it with him.
“Very well,” said the Captain. “ And if you are
to go, I will go aboard with you to help see that the
schooner is ready for a long voyage. One thing I
can tell you now: the kind of fever that the Captain
has is rum fever. Probably he is not intoxicated
now, but he has been spreeing so hard that he has
thrown himself into a fever. He may recover in a
week or two, and if he ﬁnds his senses, you must
have him appoint you ﬁrst mate. If he has stimu-
lants within reach, you may be sure he will keep
himself below decks till they are gone, unless you
can get them away from him. Anyhow, you must
rule him by strategy rather than by force, for he is
legally in command of the schooner, drunk or sober.”
Tom was not particularly pleased to hear this ac-
count of the Captain, foreseeing that there might
be trouble in store; but he was willing to take the
chances for the sake of the experience such a voyage
would give him. He had a letter to write to Aunt


246 THE BEA CH PATROL.
to Vera Cruz and back; there was not the least
doubt in his mind that he could do that; but he was
to do it with a captain on board who almost certainly
would be unﬁt for duty, but who might recover suffi-
ciently in a few days to make trouble. Fortunately
he had not much time now to think about the draw-
backs.
“ You’d better get your traps and yourself aboard
as soon as possible,” Captain Powers said, “so as to
be under way before dark.”
“ All right, sir,” Tom answered; and he could not
help adding: “Rather queer, isn’t it, to eat breakfast
as usual in the morning, and before supper to be on
the way to Mexico?”
“ Oh, I’ve seen stranger things than that happen,”
Captain Powers laughed. “ I’ve seen men eat their
breakfast as usual in the morning, and before night
be in Davy Jones’s locker.”
Tom went up stairs to complete his arrangements,
and when he came down again his appearance was
so completely changed that Dave Ackerley imme-
diately took off his hat in mock humility, and Wax
Hoover laughed in his face. He had exchanged
his rough beach clothes for the neat suit of navy
blue that was his uniform on board the yacht, with
the word Barracouta across the front of the cap
in gold letters, and touches of gold braid on the
collar and sleeves. But Captain Powers had some-
thing to say about this uniform that silenced
Hoover’s laughter.
' t
1
1

!
!
‘\
1
J
~- _, 1


A SCHOONER IN DISTRESS. 247
“ That’s right, Perry,” he said. “I did not know
you had such a uniform, or I should have told you
to put it on. You are very young, and of course
the schooner’s crew do not know whether you are
anything of a sailor or not. This will show them,
at any rate, that you have seen service before.”
“That is what I put it on for, sir,” Tom ex-
plained. “And my coming from a Life-Saving
Station ought to give me some standing with the
crew. I think I shall get along all right, sir.”
It was plain that for the present at least his
standing with the crew was excellent. What effect
his uniform had upon them, it would be difﬁcult
to say; but they were so glad to have a sane navi-
gator on board that they jumped to obey every order
he gave. - -
“Now there are several things to be looked
after,” Captain Powers said, when he and Tom were
alone in the cabin. “Charts, in the ﬁrst place.
You must be sure of your charts.”
He opened the chart locker, and found excellent
charts of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and the West
Indies.
“Now for water and provisions,” the Captain
went on. “You had better examine the water
butts yourself, and ﬁnd out what provisions are on
board. Here are the Captain’s instruments, and
they seem to be in good order.”
lt did not take lonw to ﬁnd that as the schooner
O 7
was so lately from port, there was plenty of fresh


248 THE BEACH PATROL.
water, as well as a good supply of plain food. Then,
at a whispered hint from Captain Powers, Tom
called all hands aft.
“ You understand, men,” he said to them, “that
I take command of this schooner under the author-
ity of the Life-Saving Service, to the end of the
voyage, or till the master is ﬁt for duty. I look to
every man to obey orders cheerfully and promptly.
Who has been acting as mate?”
“Henry Treadwell, sir,” several voices answered.
“Very well,” Tom went on; “ I appoint you chief
mate till further orders, Henry Treadwell. You will
bunk in the cabin with me, and will be addressed as
Mr. Treadwell. Remember that, men. Prepare to
get under way, Mr. Treadwell.”
The men put their heads together for a moment,
and then gave three cheers for the new Captain,
in which the Life-Savers joined.
“Well done, Perry—Captain Perry,” Captain
Powers said, after the men had gone forward.
“You’ll do. I had no doubt of you, or I shouldn’t
have put you here. Now remember the three dan-
ger points,—Hatteras, the Florida straits, and
northers in the Gulf. Give Hatteras a wide berth,
and you will go through the straits all right. Now
a quick and pleasant voyage to you, Captain Perry.”
Captain Perry! Tom could hardly help smiling
when he heard it, but it was necessary to maintain
his dignity before his crew. Every one of the Life-
Savers on board stepped up and shook his hand, and


A SCHOONER IN DISTRESS. 249
wished him a pleasant voyage; and when they were
in their boat and about to start for shore, they gave
three rousing cheers, which the schooner’s crew re-
turned with a will.
Tom’s management of the vessel increased the
crew’s respect for him from the start, though he
did not know it at the time. For he gave no orders
to the crew, but did everything through his mate.
His nautical education had been acquired on board a
yacht, where the crew was much larger and where
everything was done somewhat in man-of-war style.
So it was Mr. Treadwell this and Mr. Treadwell
that; but nevertheless the men saw that the Cap-
tain kept his eyes open. '
“Put her under way, Mr. Treadwell,” was much
more effective than blustering about the deck giving
orders about each sail, and the men were not slow to
see it; and when he came up out of the cabin with
a small chart in his hand, and went to the boy, who
had been put at the wheel, and ordered him to head
her sou-sou-east, two points east, and keep her so till
eight bells, they were satisﬁed that the young Captain
knew what he was about.
Tom had a particular reason for remaining on deck
as he began to sink the American coast. The very
way he put out to sea increased the conﬁdence in
him; for although the old master was enough of a
navigator to take an observation and ﬁgure out his
position, he had more conﬁdence in the lighthouses
along the coast than in his own ﬁgures. But Tom


2§O THE BEACH PATROL.
wanted to see his men at their work. Under his
system it was absolutely necessary to have a second
mate, and he wanted to pick out the best man.
Some incoherent words from the Captain’s cabin,
however, reminded him that he had more responsi-
bility than simply navigating the schooner. The
sick Captain, or drunken Captain, whichever it might
be, was also under his care, and must be attended
to. So he called the colored cook aft.
“ What is your name ?” he asked.
“ Pete Bethel, sah,” the cook replied, scraping the
deck with the toe of his boot and showing his white
teeth beautifully.
“ I suppose you have been acting as cabin steward
as well as cook,” Tom said. “At any rate, that will
be your duty from this time on. Is the Captain able
to eat anything?”
“I don’ b’lieve he ain’t eat a mouthful sense we
come out past de Hook, sah,” the cook answered.
“ Does he drink anything?” Tom asked.
“ I dunno, sah,” the cook replied, grinning again.
“ He don’ git nothin’ to drink from me, sah. I ain’t
got nothin’.”
“Very well ; that will do. But wait a moment.
What is the Captain’s name ? ”
“Captain David Burnet, sah,” the cook answered.
Tom went down to the cabin and knocked at the
Captain’s door, but received no answer. He opened
the door gently, and saw his patient lying ﬂat on his
back in the berth, his eyes wide open and ﬁxed stead-


252 THE BEACH PATROL.
the ﬁrst dog" watch struck he had his watch lists
ready: Mr. Treadwell the mate, and William Watson,
an able seaman in the port watch, to be assisted by
the cook when necessary ; and Nathan Green, Edward
Hoe, and Walter Crane, the boy, in the starboard.
Nathan Green was the man he had selected for second
mate.
After a hasty and lonely supper in the cabin he
went on deck to give the necessary orders about the
watches, and found just one light burning—the red
port light. With his careful training this was as
great a shock to him as if he had found six feet of
water in the hold. He instantly called the mate.
“ Where are the lights, Mr. Treadwell?” he asked.
. “ We’ve got out a port light, sir; that’s the wind’ard
light. We don’t gen’ly carry nothing but a wind’ard
light, sir. It saves oil, sir, and we don’t meet much
goin’ down the coast.”
“ You will get out all the lights required by law,
at once,” Tom ordered. “ A starboard light, and the
usual masthead light. I hope I shall not see the
schooner without proper lights again, Mr. Treadwell.”
“ Very well, sir,” the mate answered, and started
forward to attend to it.
Tom was looking forward to see the order obeyed,
when he heard a gruff but weak voice ask, “ What’s
that?” behind him. “ Who is this giving orders on
my deck? Who are you, anyhow ? ” ’
He turned quickly and saw Captain Burnet coming
toward him, barefoot, and clad only in a night-gown.


CHAPTER XVI.
CAPTAIN TOM PERRY 1N A HURRICANE.
IT was a very embarrassing position for the young
Captain, for he could not tell how far Captain
Burnet had recovered his reason. But he instantly
made up his mind what course to take.
“How do you do, Captain Burnet?” he asked,
stepping up to him. “ I am glad to see you able to
be up again, sir. You were so sick a few hours ago
that the Life-Saving Service put me on board to take
charge till you were better.”
Much to Tom’s surprise, the Captain paid no fur-
ther attention to him; but turning his face aft
shaded his eyes with his hands in the deep twilight
and seemed to be looking for something astern.
“They’ll overhaul us, at this rate!” he shouted.
“With their steam to our sails we must do better
than this. Where’s Treadwell? Hey, Treadwell,
clap on more sail! Make everything draw! They’re
sharp after us, man ! ”
Before Tom could make any reply to this wild
raving, the Captain gave a terrible cry and dashed
past him, down the cold deck in his bare feet, on till
353


254 THE BEACH PATROL.
he was forward of the little gallery, and then sprang
up on the port rail, with one hand on the shrouds.
In a second more he would have been overboard, for
it was evidently his intention to jump. But Henry
Treadwell was there, and his arms were clasped
around the Captain’s legs before he could make
another move. William Watson sprang up and held
him around the body, and together they lowered him
to the deck.
Tom was there by that time, too; and he took the
Captain by the right hand.
“You are not strong enough to be out yet, Cap-
tain,” he said. “It won’t do for you to be on deck.
Let me help you down to your room. Help the Cap-
tain back to bed, men.”
The three of them were ready to use force if nec-
essary for the Captain’s own safety, but by this time
he seemed to have forgotten his fears. He walked
along with them peaceably, and they took him to his
room and put him in the bed, where he lay exhausted
after his exertion.
“ That will do, Watson,” Tom said, when they
were in the cabin again. And as soon as the sailor
was gone he turned to the mate.
“ It looks to me as if the Captain had been drink-
ing, Mr. Treadwell, and was keeping it up.”
V “ I am sure of it, sir,” the mate answered. “ That
is what ails him.”
“Then we must ﬁnd the liquor,” Tom continued,
“ or he will kill himself with it. It must be hidden


2 56 THE BEA CH PA TR OL.
bottles should be; and beneath the name was the
direction, “Dose, one teaspoonful every hour, in
water.” .
The Captain made no resistance to taking the
medicine, and he was still quiet; but Tom lay down
in his clothes on one of the cabin lockers, fearing
another outbreak of violence.
The log does not show how many times the vigi-
lant young Captain was on deck that night, but it
was a great many. His double responsibility made
him wakeful. But all night long Captain Burnet
made no sound. And the day broke clear and
bright.
With a brisk northwest wind, the Shrewsbury was
doing good work. When Tom took his observation
at noon he found she was off the coast of Virginia,
having averaged about nine knots an hour. But
there was nothing in sight; he was well out, to give
Hatteras a wide berth.
For nearly a week the history of one day was the
history of another, with of course a few incidents.
All that time the Captain lay in his berth, sometimes
quiet and sometimes waving his arms; taking his
medicine willingly, and occasionally letting them
pour a little broth or a swallow of water down his
throat. All the time there was a peculiar odor in
his room—the odor of some chemical; but Tom
could not make out what it was.
“Will we make Hatteras to-day, sir?”"the mate
asked, on the second morning.


TOM SPRANG TO THE WHEEL


CAPTAIN TOM PERRY IN .4 IIURRICANE. 259
coming nearer and nearer till the sun shining through
it made a ghastly light. Then the sun blotted out,
leaving them in half darkness at midday. Then a
puff of wind, and another, driving away the mist and
showing them the sky black as a thunder cloud. Then
blast after blast, that laid the schooner, bare as she
was, over on her beam ends, and churned the sea into
a foam. Then the full fury of the hurricane, begin-
ning in the south, working gradually into the west,
and then reaching the northwest, where it remained.
They were washed by waves and smothered with
spray, and it was impossible to stand on any part of
the deck without holding to something.
Tom sprang to the wheel, knowing that one man
could not handle it in that weather—and it was
quicker to do what he wanted than to give orders.
“Hard down! hard down! ” he shouted at Edward
Hoe, who had been steering. He wanted to get her
before the wind and run for it, knowing that that
was his only chance. For that was a wind to pick
a little schooner up bodily and tear her to pieces.
Around ﬂew the spokes, and around swung the
little vessel. There was a cry from the men, for
they thought that even the double-reefed jib would
take the foremast out of her. But everything held,
at least for the time. A great billow chased them
astern, occasionally catching them and ﬂooding the
deck. The air grew darker and darker.
“Send another man to the wheel, Mr. Treadwel1,”
he shouted.


260 THE BEA CH PA TROL.
Nathan Green worked his way aft, and Tom gave
him his place at the wheel.
He would have taken in the jib if he had dared,
but he dared not do it. He knew that he must keep
steerage way on her at all hazards, for he was in the
most dangerous part of the whole coast. To the
east of him was the Bahama Bank, with the long
range of Bahama islands beyond. To the south was
Cuba. He had not sea-room enough for such a
storm, and he must control the vessel or they were
lost. It was an open question yet whether she could
live in the tremendous seas.
At this perilous moment he saw Captain Burnet
coming up the companionway from the cabin. The
Captain had pulled on some clothes and wore a pair
of slippers and a cap.
“ What’s this! what’s this!” the Captain shouted.
“What do you mean, you lazy duffers? Clap on
some sails here, Treadwell. Do you all go to sleep
because I stay below? Move lively, men ! ”
For the ﬁrst time the men hesitated; perhaps be-
cause the Captain looked more like himself with
some clothes on; and Tom saw the imminent danger,
for the setting of a single sail meant their instant
destruction.
But here were two masters on deck giving contra-
dictory orders, and the men did not know which to
obey. Tom remembered that he was ordered to use
strategy, not force; but a minute’s hesitation might
wreck the schooner.


262 THE BEACH PATROL.
dark for an observation. Two orders became very
familiar to the crew in these dismal days. They
were:
“ Sound the pumps! ”
“ Heave the lead ! ”
Tom was not a captain to miss any chances, and
the lead might tell him a story that the dull sky
could not. Still he was not without some knowledge
of his position. He had kept her steadily before the
gale, heading southeastward through that narrow
passage between Cuba and the Bahamas; and by a
rough dead reckoning he estimated that he was
somewhere near the eastern end of Cuba. His worst
fear now was that he might strike Great Magna
Island, which lay in his track.
On the third day he went up to the crosstrees with
his glasses; and when he came down he looked so
much relieved that Mr. Treadwell asked:
“ Make anything out, sir?”
“Cape Maisi light,” Tom answered; and those
three words were equivalent to saying that their
lives were saved; for to know their exact position
was half the battle. “I shall take her into the
Windward Passage, where we can ﬁnd some shelter
till the storm abates.”
No man aboard the Shrewsbury suspected what
hours of agonizing labor Tom had spent in study-
ing the charts, as soon as he could leave the deck.
Knowing nothing of those waters, he had to depend
entirely upon chart and compass.


264 THE BEACH PATROL.
the schooner was in danger; but now that she was
safe he unfastened the door while the cook was mak-
ing the table ready for supper.
“ How do you feel, Captain ? ” Tom asked, stepping
into the stateroom.
But the Captain apparently neither saw nor heard
him. He lay on one side now, facing the porthole,
and seemed to be talking to the water. He had been
violent at times, kicking the door, shouting, and
sometimes singing.
Tom was no sooner in the room than he noticed the
peculiar odor of chemicals that he had noticed there
before ; but it was stronger this time. He sniffed and
sniffed, but could not make out what it was.
“ See here, Bethel,” he called to the cook. “ Step
in here and tell me whether you smell anything.”
The cook went in and sniffed; and if there was
any odor it certainly could not escape him, for his
nostrils were about two inches broad.
“ I,--golly! guess I does, sah ! ” he exclaimed,
after the ﬁrst sniff.
“What is it?” Tom asked.
Bethel tried it again, and then deliberated a mo-
ment, as if he had an important verdict to give.
“I should say it were alcohaul, sah! ” he said.
“ Alcohol! ” Tom repeated. “And do people drink
alcohol ?” .
“Some people does, sah,” Bethel replied. “W'erry
low down ones, sah. \Verry hard drinkers gits so
burnt out inside after ’while dat whiskey an’ brandy


CAPTAIN TOM PERRY IN A HURRICANE. 26$
ain’t strong enough for ’em, sah, an’ dey takes to
alcohaul. Den purty soon dey does go dead, or
crazy.”
“ Perhaps that’s what is the matter,” Tom deliber-
ated aloud. “ Has the Captain been a hard drinker,
Bethel?”
“I can’t edzac’ly say a hard drinker, sah,” the
cook answered, grinning till his mouth was at least
ﬁve inches wide. “He drink werry easy, sah; jest
sort o’ pour it down, sah. De owners dey does
al’ays watch de stores wat does come aboard, to see
he don’ have no drink; ’cause if dey any aboard,
sah, he sure to get drunk.”
“Quite a model captain!” Tom exclaimed. “I
wonder the owners would keep such a man.”
“Oh, he ﬁne captain, sah,” Bethel hastened to
say, “w’en he sober. On’y he not sober much.”
There was only one conclusion Tom could form
from this: that the Captain was such a hopeless
drunkard that he had smuggled some alcohol aboard,
and was constantly drinking it. And as he had not
been out of his room for three days, it must be con-
cealed somewhere in his room.
But where? The room had been thoroughly
searched, and the bed and all the Captain’s lockers
and bureau drawers.
“We will give the room another overhauling,
Bethel,” he said; and they did, even to loosening
the carpet to look for traps in the ﬂoor. But this
search was as futile as the other.


266 THE BEA CH PA TROL.
“Poor man!” Tom said to himself. “I suppose
the miserable stuff has him so in its clutches that
he can’t let it alone, if he can get it. I’m glad
I didn’t know even the smell of alcohol; I don’t
want to know it, either.”
The next morning showed them one of the most
beautiful sights Tom had ever looked upon: the ris-
ing sun throwing his early beams upon the bold end of
Cuba, illumining ﬁrst the mountain tops, then the
mountain side, then the tall Cape Maisi lighthouse, and
at length the beach and the water. It was grand, but
desolate; for in all the miles of mountain and valley
before them there was not a single sign of life or habi-
tation beyond the lighthouse and the lightkeeper’s
little stone dwelling. And turning to the eastward,
his eyes rested upon a dark blot on the horizon,
which was all he could see of San Domingo.
“The foremast is badly sprung, sir,” was the be-
ginning of Mate Treadwell’s report on the condition
of the schooner. And that was followed by a long
list of minor troubles, all bad enough in themselves,
but nothing to what might have been expected after
such an encounter with a hurricane.
All the smaller matters could be repaired on
board; but to reset the foremast the schooner must
go into port. And Tom fell to studying the charts
again to determine what harbor he should make.
He was only a few miles, he saw, from the ﬁne
harbor of Santiago de Cuba. But if he went there,
he should have to deal with Spanish-speaking people;


CAPTAIN T011! PERRY IN A HURRICANE. 267
and as he knew nothing of that language, they would
most likely take advantage of him. A run of little
more than two hundred miles across the Caribbean
Sea, he found, would take him to Kingston, Jamaica,
an English island, where he would be better able
to take care of himself. And he wisely determined
to sail for Jamaica as soon as the storm abated.


270 THE BEACH PATROL.
“ What do you mean?” Tom asked.
“Oh, l’se a Jamaiky niggah, sah! I knows all
dese places. Dis little Port Royal on shore, poof,
dat nothin’, sah. Once dere stan’ here a big city,
sah ; long, oh, very long time ago. Dat called Port
Royal too, sah. De biggest city in all Ameriky, it
was in dem days, sah; an’ rich! oh, mighty rich.
Den dere come de great earthquake, an’ down she
went! down into de sea, sah; an’ drownded all de
people. An’ dere all de buildin’s is yet, sah; an’
we’se a sailin’ right over dem at dis minute, sah! ”
“ Nonsense ! ” Tom answered.
“ It a dead sho’ fack, sah ! ” Bethel insisted; “ you
come out heah in small boat some smooth day, an’
you see ’em, sah. An’ in rough weather you kin
heah the big Cat’edral bell toll, sah ! ”
Tom went on deck to look over the side; but his
attention was needed in other directions, for the Cap-
tain of the Port was approaching in his barge to in-
spect the schooner’s papers. He hurried down to the
cabin to get them.
“ This is a very peculiar case,” the Captain of the
Port said, after matters had been explained to him.
“ You cannot enter the schooner at the Custom House,
because you are not her master. The master must
sign the papers. Can’t he write his name?”
They both went down to Captain Burnet’s room to
see; but the Captain was talkingto the man in the
ceiling again, and paid no attention to them.
“Well,” said the Captain of the Port, shaking his


A TRIP TO A YAMAICA MOUNTAIN PEAK. 271
head sadly at the master’s condition, “you can run
up to anchorage and lie there, anyhow. There must
be some way out of such a scrape as this. You had
better go ashore as soon as possible and see the
American Consul. Maybe he can tell you what
steps to take.”
Later in the day Tom inquired his way through
the hot and uneven streets of Kingston to the Ameri-
can Consulate, and felt encouraged when he saw over
the door an imitation eagle keeping guard over the
red, white, and blue shield that warms an American’s
heart in any part of the world.
Mr. Ramsey, the Consul, was not only a man of
law, but a man of expedients. He liked Tom’s ap-
pearance and his frank manner, and listened to the
whole story patiently.
“It is a very complicated case,” he said, after Tom
had ﬁnished. “But there are ways to settle such cases,
Captain. In an ordinary case you could cable the
facts to the owners, and they could dismiss the other
man and appoint you to his place, if they chose. But
there arises another difficulty: you have no master’s
certiﬁcate, and could not legally be appointed Cap-
tain of the schooner. You know a man must pass
an examination and get a certiﬁcate before he can
command a vessel.
“ Now my advice to you,” he continued, “ which I
give you not as a Consul, but as a fellow-American
and a lawyer, is to patch up the Captain. That is
the only thing to be done. Get him well enough to


272 THE BEACH PATROL.
sign papers, at any rate. Without his signature to
a draft on the owners, you cannot even get the
schooner repaired.”
“But he does not improve in the least, sir,” Tom
explained.
“ No; and he is not likely to as long as he remains
on board,” the Consul went on. “I have no doubt,
from what you tell n|e, that he has liquor concealed
somewhere in his room. So the thing to do is to get
him ashore, and take him to the hospital, where he
can get no drink. If he is not too far gone, he will
soon sober down enough to make his mark to the
papers. That is the best way out of the difﬁculty
that I can suggest; and meanwhile I can arrange
matters at the Custom House so that you can enter
and perhaps begin your repairs.”
The Consul kindly offered to go with Tom to the
hospital to arrange for Captain Burnet’s reception;
and next morning, having been partially dressed,
the Captain was taken ashore and driven to the
hospital in a carriage, being at the time fortunately
in one of the moods in which he neither offered re-
sistance nor objected to anything.
Then came the business of making repairs, which
Tom hoped to begin at once, with the Consul’s assist-
ance. By afternoon the owner of the only available
shipyard was on board, making a thorough inspec-
tion.
“Now there are two ways of doing this thing,”
the man said, when his examination was completed.


A TRIP T0 .4 7A/114104 MOUNTAIN PEAK. 273
“One way is merely to reset that foremast. That
amounts to nothing; a mere matter of two hundred
or two hundred and ﬁfty dollars. But the other way
oﬁers a great opportunity for a young man like you.
I can give the schooner a thorough overhauling, make
her as good as new, for about ﬁve thousand dollars.
It is our custom in such cases to pay the Captain a
commission of twenty-ﬁve per cent on the bill. That
would put about twelve hundred and ﬁfty dollars into
your pocket, you see.”
“ Do you call that a great opportunity, sir!” Tom
asked indignantly. “I should call that plain steal-
ing.”
“ Oh, not at all, not at all!” the man urged, very
smoothly. “It is the custom all over the world to
give a captain some commission on any extensive
repairs made to his ship.”
“It shall not be my custom, sir! ” Tom declared;
“and if you please, we will consider nothing but
resetting the mast. The crew can make any other
repairs that are necessary.”
“ Very well,” said the man; “ but you are throw-
ing away a great deal of money. I think we can
have your mast in shape some time next week.”
They had lain under the burning Jamaica sun for
three days before Tom had time to give any further
attention to the strange story of Port Royal, though
he had learned from the Consul that Bethel’s version
of it was true — all but the ringing of the Cathedral
bell in a storm.


274 THE BEA CH PA TP 0L.
“Now, Bethel,” he said, “I am going to have a
look at that lost city of yours. If there really is a
city beneath the water here, I want to see it. We
will lower a boat, and you shall pull bow oar, so as
to show us the exact spot.”
It was a long and hot pull, across that ﬁve or six
miles of harbor to Port Royal. But Bethel pointed
out the place; and there sure enough they could see
in the clear water piles of broken masonry; great
heaps of cut stone; in some places, big ﬂat sections
of overturned walls. There were no entire buildings,
such as Tom had hoped to see; but the submerged
remains of a city of forty thousand inhabitants, the
greatest city, in its day, in the western hemisphere,
he thought well worth the trouble of going to see.
Every day he visited Captain Burnet in the hospi-
tal, and every day found him much improved men-
tally, though so weak physically that he could hardly
lift a hand. He had not the least recollection of
Tom, or of having seen him on the schooner. But
one great end was gained; the Captain was calm
enough to make his mark to a paper when one of
the attendants steadied his hand; and that relieved
Tom of many difficulties.
“Everything out, Bethel; every stick and stitch
and thread.” That was Tom’s order about the Cap-
tain’s stateroom. Now was the time to search it,
while the Captain was absent; and if anything was
hidden there he was determined to ﬁnd it.
“ Take out de ca’pet, too, sah ?” Bethel asked, after


A TRIP TO A YAMAICA MOUNTAIN PEAK. 277
the end of the road. The carriage can only go as far
as Gordontown, about half-way, and there we take
ponies and go the rest of the way on horseback.”
“How did they come to build a town in such an
inaccessible place, sir?” Tom asked.
“There is no town,” the Consul replied. “New-
castle is a military station. The English troops feel
-the effects of this hot weather when they are sent
out here, so Newcastle was established as a sort of
sanitarium for them, up where the air is always pure
and cool. The soldiers have made a good bridle-path
up to the top, and it is a very pleasant ride.”
“My business there,” the Consul continued, “is
with Colonel William Clive Justice, the commander
of the troops. You must take a good look at him
when you meet him, for he is one of the most distin-
guished officers in the British army. He is the hero
of ﬁfty battles in all parts of the world, and wears
the V. C.”
Tom did not know what the “ V. C.” meant, and
did not hesitate to say so.
“ The Victoria Cross,” the Consul explained; “ the
proudest badge a soldier can wear, in my opinion,
as it is conferred only for distinguished bravery in
battle.”
These things interested theyoung Captain; and
still he found it hard work to give his whole atten-
tion to the Consul, there were so many strange
things on every hand. The road, he noticed, was as
hard and smooth and white as a ﬂoor; and they


2 78 THE BEA CH PA TR 0L. 
could hardly go ﬁfty yards without meeting a group
of colored people coming down the mountain to mar-
ket, — men, women, and children, —all barefoot, and
every one carrying a tray balanced on the head,
loaded with yams, oranges, bananas, cocoanuts, eggs,
vegetables, and a hundred other things.
“Mawnin’, mawsters!” every one of the colored
folks said, with a bow, in passing; and that was the
ﬁrst relic of slavery that T0111 had ever seen.
The further up the mountain they went, the cooler
grew the air, until sometimes they almost shivered.
In places great tropical trees met overhead and formed
an archway of foliage over the road. In other places
the road went through a deep cut in the rock, and
the steep walls were covered with moss and ferns and
ﬂowers. Occasionally they had a view of some little
mountain valley, with a clear, cool stream bounding
through it; and beside the stream a red-roofed cot-
tage, shaded by tall cocoanut palms and embowered
in ﬂowers; and further back a broad ﬁeld of bananas.
But when they reached Gordontown, Tom felt what
it was to be thoroughly stirred by the beauties of
Nature. There was no town, only a half-way inn
between the city and the camp; and that stood on
the side of the mountain, with the great wall of
green and gray rising immediately behind it, up,
up, till its peak was lost in the clouds. And in front
of it nothing but the white road, and beyond the
road a steep descent into a broad valley, full of
little plantations and their cosy houses.


A TRIP TO A YAMAICA MOUNTAIN PEAK. 279
“Now,” said the Consul, as they left the carriage
and mounted the ponies that were waiting for them,
“ when we are going up the bridle-path and you see
anything coming down, or when you hear a whistle
as we are approaching 'a curve, get your horse up as
close against the inner wall as you can, and wait.”
“ Why is that, sir?” Tom asked.
“ Well,” the Consul laughed, “I think I’ll not tell
you, just now, why. We’ll save that for a little sur-
prise.” '
They did not have to wait long for the surprise to
come. The bridle-path was about six feet wide, and
very steep—in some places going up at an angle of
fully forty-ﬁve degrees; and they had gone about a
quarter of a mile, and were just below a steep curve,
when they heard a shrill whistle above them.
“Look out, now,” Mr. Ramsey said; “hug the
wall as close as you can.”
The ponies needed little urging to push up against
the wall, for they knew what the whistle meant.
In an instant a horseman appeared around the
curve, running his horse down that steep incline at
the very top of his speed. The man was a soldier
in uniform, with his little cap cocked jauntily over
one ear, and a short sword dangling at his side.
Like a ﬂash he was abreast of them, then past;
swinging at breakneck speed around another curve,
urging his horse to still greater speed.
“I hope that fellow’s life is insured!” Tom ex-
claimed, looking after the man in amazement.


280 THE BEACH PATROL.
“Oh, they are used to it,” the Consul laughed.
“He is an orderly from headquarters, going down
to the city on some errand. They always ride
down that way, and we never hear of any ac-
cidents.”
“But if his horse should stumble?” Tom asked.
“Then they would pick the man up somewhere
around the foot of the mountain,” the Consul an-
swered. “A British soldier never fears anything,
you know; that is,” he added, with a quiet smile,
“hardly ever.”
Every moment, as they ascended, the views grew
broader and grander, till they reached the summit;
and that, Tom was sure, must be the ﬁnest view in
the whole world. The city of Kingston lay appar-
ently at their feet, and the harbor and Port Royal,
and beyond that the bright Caribbean Sea, sparkling
in the sun; and on either side were scores of miles
of sugar and coffee plantations.
The Consul was told at ﬁrst that Colonel Justice
was engaged; but when the Colonel heard who his
visitor was he sent for him to come in at once, Tom
of course going along. When they entered the
office they found another gentleman there with the
Commander.
“ Ah, good morning, your Excellency!” Mr. Ram-
sey said ; “good morning, Colonel. Allow me to
present a young countryman of mine, gentlemen;
Captain Thomas Perry, of the schooner Slzrewsbury,
lying in the harbor. You have the honor, Captain,


282 THE BEACH PATROL.
We will seat the old hero and the young one opposite
one another, to compare them.”
One point of difference between them was that the
young hero blushed at this, and the old one did not.
The Consul soon completed his business with the
Colonel; and as the visitors were on their way out
to the ponies, Tom said:
“I didn’t think I could get so intimate with a
Governor and a Victoria Cross man, all of a sudden!
But they are just as agreeable as if they were only
ordinary people. And what a ﬁne pair they are!
Both so big and strong; and what a grip they have
in their hands!”
“ You must remember that you have become some-
thing of a personage yourself,” the Consul replied,
with a smile, “since you brought your schooner in
through the hurricane. It is not every day that a
merchant captain is invited to dine with the Gov-
ernor, I assure you.”


CHAPTER XVIII.
THE CAPTAIN’S sncmrr DISCOVERED.
BY the time that the Shrewsbury was ready to
sail for Vera Cruz, Captain Burnet had re-
gained-his senses sufficiently to know how matters
stood. He knew that he had been very ill, and that
Tom had taken charge of the schooner; and he was
grateful to him for taking good care of everything.
“ Oh, but I am so weak, Mr. Perry ! ” he said, on
the last day but one. “So very weak. I think I
shall pick up strength when I get on board again.”
There certainly was no doubt about his being very
weak indeed, for he was not able yet to raise a spoon-
ful of broth to his mouth.
When sailing day came, Tom and the Consul went
to the hospital for him with a carriage, for Tom was
determined not to give the Captain a chance to
buy any liquor on his way through-the town. The
wretched man had to be carried to the carriage and
then carried to his bed on the schooner ; and when
he found that his room had been changed, he seemed
disposed, weak as he was, to make trouble.
“Why, I thought it would be a good change for
283


284 THE BEACH PATROL.
you, Captain,” Tom urged. “ Your own things are
all over in the new room, even to the bedding.”
When they laid him on the bed, he dragged his
hands languidly up and down, as if to assure himself
that the familiar objects were all there; and the
examination seemed to satisfy him, for he soon
murmured:
“Very well; this will do. I am content with the
change.”
Then Tom had to say good by to his friend the
Consul; and he had been treated so hospitably in
Jamaica, that going away seemed almost like leaving
home.
“ I never can thank you enough for all your kind-
ness, sir,” he said ; “nor Governor Blake either. I
wish that all Americans knew what a ﬁne man he
is; and Lady Blake treated me just as if I really
belonged in such a ﬁne place as King’s House. I
may meet other governors, some day, but I am sure
I shall never meet another like Governor Blake.”
“You must let me know when you reach home
safely,” the Consul answered, “for I am interested
in the Shrewsbury and her Captain.”
When they sailed out of the harbor, it was not to
retrace the course by which they had come, for there
is a nearer way to Vera Cruz than that. They
headed immediately to the westward for the Yucatan
Channel, the narrow strait between Cuba and Yuca-
tan, by which they could run directly into the Gulf
of Mexico.


THE CAPTAIN’S SECRET DISCOVERED. 285
About four o’clock in the afternoon Tom was on
deck taking his last look at the beautiful Blue Moun-
tains of Jamaica, knowing that after darkness once
shut them in it would be many a long day before he
should see them again.
“ How is she heading, Mr. Perry? ” a voice behind
him asked. And it gave Tom a start, for he knew
the voice.
There stood Captain Burnet, fully dressed, even to
boots and cap, and showing hardly a trace of the
weakness that had prevented him from even raising
a hand a few hours before!
“ West, sir, two points north,” Tom answered.
“But how rapidly you have improved, Captain. I
had no hope of seeing you able to walk about so soon,
s1r. ’
“ I knew I should soon pick up when I got aboard,”
the Captain answered. “I feel very much better.
By to-morrow I shall be able to take command, I
hope.” -
The Captain walked about the deck and talked
with the men, making occasional trips to the cabin,
“ to rest himself when he felt tired,” as he said.
“ Well, that’s the most extraordinary thing I ever
saw!” Tom said to himself. “How can a man be
so weak in the morning and so strong in the after-
noon? If I hadn’t been with the Captain every
minute, I should almost think he had been drinking
again. I suppose that would give him an unnatural
strength for a short time.”


286 THE BEACH PATROL.
Whatever had made such a sudden change in the
Captain, he was able to be on deck most of the after-
noon and evening; and his talk was coherent and
sensible.
But by the next morning there was another change.
The Captain, still fully dressed, crawled up to the
deck, looking weak and haggard; and Tom saw
with regret that he had the old wild look in his
eyes.
“You must push her, Mr.—Mr.—” he stam-
mered. “What did you say your name was? What
are you doing here, anyhow? Where’s Treadwell?
Treadwell! ” He was almost shouting by this time.
“Treadwell, get on more sail. They’re after us,
man! Don’t you see them coming? Look! look!”
As he shrieked the last words he pointed wildly
over the stern, where nothing could be seen but blue
water.
It needed no experienced eye to see that the Cap-
tain had- been drinking heavily again, and had
undone all the good work of the hospital. But
where could he get anything to drink? He soon
exhausted himself with his excitement, and offered
no opposition when they carried him below.
“ Bethel,” Tom said to the cook at breakfast time,
“there is some great mystery about this thing. The
Captain seems to get his miserable drink as readily
in my room as he got it in his own. It seems to be
impossible to stop him.”
“ I ’clar to goodness, sah !” the cook answered, with


THE CAPTAIN’S SECRET DISCO VERED. 287
his broad grin, “I cawn’t see whar he gits it. I on’y
wish I could, sah.”
“You are the only man who has access to him,”
Tom went on, “ and it may be that you carry it to
him. I want you to know that if I catch you at
such a thing I shall put you in irons for the rest of
the voyage.”
“ Me, sah!” Bethel exclaimed, very much fright-
ened at the threat; “I wouldn’ do no sech t’ing,
sah, not if I had anything to take him. But I
haven’t, sah, ’pon my solemn word, sah ! ”
The man seemed to be speaking the truth; never-
theless, the Captain was evidently getting plenty of
drink somewhere, and by afternoon he was laid on
his back again, talking to the imaginary man in the
ceiling.
“Talk about mysteries of the sea!” Tom said to
himself, after he had cudgelled his brains over and
over for some solution of the puzzle; “ this is a real
mystery. It doesn’t seem to make any difference
what room the man is in, he ﬁnds something to
drink just the same. And just as much in my room
as anywhere, though I know there’s nothing there!
Well, poor fellow, if he’s determined to kill himself,
I suppose I can’t help it; but it will give me a heap
of trouble at Vera Cruz.”
On the third day they ran through the Yucatan
channel into the Gulf of Mexico, and there the heat
was worse even than in the Caribbean Sea. The
cabin became so stiﬂing that Tom began to fear it


288 THE BEA CH PA TROL.
might prove too much for Captain Burnet. He
went down to see him, and found him still delirious.
“ You must put a change of linen on the Captain’s
bed,” he said to Bethel when he came out. “ In this
terrible heat everything ought to be fresh and clean.
Change everything—sheets, pillow cases, and all.”
Bethel set about this work at once; and hardly
ten minutes had elapsed before he sprang up the
companionway with a pillow in his hands, and ran
up to Tom, grinning all over.
“I’se found de Captain’s liquor, sah!” he cried,
breathless and excited.
' “ What ! ” Tom exclaimed; “ where is it?”
“Right yeah, sah,” Bethel replied; and he began
to pull the white case from the pillow.
The pillow proved to be a rubber air cushion,
capable of holding liquids, with a brass valve at one
corner to inﬂate it through, and large enough to hold
perhaps three or four gallons. But it was well ﬂat-
tened down, as if much of the air had escaped.
“ Dat is w’ere it all comes from, sah, sure! ”
Bethel cried, holding up the uncovered cushion.
“ W’en I picks up de pillow I t’inks she feel mighty
ﬂat; so I looks an’ sees she not a rale feadder piller,
but dis t’ing. But I’se seen dese air pillers befo’,
sah; so I nnscrews her to blow in more wind. An’
de minit I turns de screw, out runs a lot o’ stuff
looks like water, sah. Now jest smell o’ dat, sah! ”
As he spoke he unscrewed the valve, and held it
up to Tom’s nose.


THE CAPTAIN’S SECRET DISCOVERED. 291
Even a little schooner like the Shrewsbury cannot
go up to the ﬁne stone wharf at Vera Cruz,—the
mole, the natives call it, —because the water is not
deep enough; and Tom was compelled to anchor
out in the roadstead, and send his cargo ashore in
lighters. He had less difﬁculty than he expected
in a Spanish-speaking port, because so many English
and American ships land there that most of the ofﬁ-
cers have learned to speak a little English. The
Captain by this time was rational enough to sign
the necessary papers, though painfully weak, and
totally unable to stir from his bed.
In his ten days at Vera Cruz Tom had abundant
opportunity to see all the curiosities of the place.
The tiny porters, no bigger than American boys,
with their dark skins and coal-black hair, picking
up immense cases and walking easily off with them
on their shoulders, he thought the oddest of all; and
he was still more interested in them when he found
that these strong little men were descendants of the
original Aztec Indians, who lived there long before
Columbus discovered America.
“Get her under way, Mr. Treadwell!” and on
hearing the order the crew gave a cheer, for it meant
that they were homeward bound. The Life-Saver
Captain felt then as he never had felt before the
truthfulness of the story he had heard so often, of
the man just returned from a voyage to Europe.
“ What was the ﬁnest thing you saw on your trip?”
the man was asked. “The Highland Lights!” he


292 THE BEACH PATROL.
responded promptly, meaning the ﬁrst sight of his
own coast. Tom felt as if the sight of those lights
would be worth a great deal to him. Between the
hurricane and the demented Captain his outward
voyage had been a hard one, and one that he was
not likely soon to forget.
There was one painful scene in the cabin just
before the schooner got under way,—a scene so
painful that to this day Tom dislikes to think of it,
much less to speak of it. It was when Captain Bur-
net sent for him, and begged him, like a drowning
man begging for help, to get him a little stimulant
before starting. “Just a little, Mr. Perry. One or
two drinks, and I will ask for no more. Do not
refuse me, if you have any pity. Oh, this terrible,
terrible weakness! It seems as if I should fall to
pieces, Mr. Perry. A drink or two will make a
new man of me. Oh, you can’t refuse me that,
Mr. Perry.”
But Tom was ﬁrm. Anything else that the Cap-
tain wanted he would get for him with pleasure, but
not a drop to drink—not one drop, under any cir-
cumstances whatever. He would not have a drop
of liquor aboard the vessel, not even for medicine,
after the terrible things he had seen.' The Captain
actually shed tears, and would have gone down on
his knees if he had been strong enough; but Tom
would not yield. It was dreadful to see a man
degrade himself so, and disgusting, even though he
knew that the poor drunkard had so destroyed both


TIIE CAPTAIN‘S SECRET DISCOVERED. 295
the Life-Saving Service. For instance, when I was
eating dinner with the Governor of Jamaica-—”
“ What!” Wax Hoover laughed. “You eating
dinner with the Governor of Jamaica? Come, now,
don’t begin to give us any such yarns as that. I
guess you were waiting on the table, if you were in
the Governor’s house.”
“ You wouldn’t have thought so if you had seen
Sir Henry and Lady Blake loading my plate with
the best things on the island,” Tom went on. “But
as I was going to say, Governor Blake was so much
interested in our service. He said he never had met
an American L. S. S. man before, and he was glad
to see one, for he considered it one of the grandest
things in the country. I tell you, in places where
they don’t think much of the Captain of a little
schooner, when they ﬁnd out that a man is a member
of the U. S. L. S. S., they treat him like a king.”
“I am glad we have such a good reputation,”
Captain Powers said, with a smile. “But tell us
about that beast of a Captain. Why didn’t you
sober him up and set him at work?”
“He was the most mysterious man I ever saw,”
Tom laughed, “till we found him out. He kept
himself wild with liquor, but as often as I had his
room searched I couldn’t ﬁnd a drop. Then I had
him moved over to my room, and upon my word he
got just as much there. And where do you suppose
it was when we found it?”
“In his boot ?” Dave Ackerley suggested.


296 THE BEA CH PA TR OL.
“ In the water pitcher.”
“ Tank in the stateroom ﬂoor.”
“No, none of them,” Tom went on. “It was in
his pillow. One of the pillows was a big rubber
cushion, and he just drank away till he nearly killed
himself. But we poured it all overboard, and he’s
sane enough now, though too weak to get out of bed.”
Tom resisted all the urging to stay over night at
the station, saying that it would not be fair to the
owners to delay the schooner. Before sunset he was
under way again, and two days later he ran into New
York harbor, and took the schooner up to Hoboken
without the aid of a tug.
When he went up to the oflice of Wright and
Ormsby, the Shrewsbury’s owners, he found that they
knew nearly everything that had happened, through
a letter from their agent in Vera Cruz. ,
“ You have navigated the schooner very well for
such a young man,” Mr. Ormsby said, “ and we are
satisﬁed with your work;” and Tom thought that
was putting it rather mildly, considering all the
dangers and hardships he had been through. He
did not suspect that the man was careful not to say
too much because he wanted to employ him.
“If you will go to the Inspectors, and pass the
examination and get a master’s certiﬁcate, we may
be able to give you something to do, as we have
several schooners in the southern trade.”
“Thank you, sir,” Tom answered, “but I belong
to the Life-Saving Service.”


THE CAPTAIN’S SECRET DISCOVERED. 297
“But you can do better with us,” Mr. Ormsby
urged. “ Captain Burnet has made his last voyage
in any of our vessels, and we may be able to give
you a command.”
“I should have to consider that, sir,” Tom an-
swered. “Will you give me a week to think it
over in?”
With this understanding, and with ample pay in
his pocket for the service he had performed, Tom
went back to the Shrewsbury to get his clothes.
And while he was there an ambulance drove up to
take Captain Burnet to the hospital. In the hospi-
tal we may safely leave him, for he is not a man
whose further acquaintance we need desire. If he
lives, he is a wreck; and if he dies, his few friends
can only say, “ What a relief to his family!”


CHAPTER XIX.
7
NED DARLINGS SALVAGE MONEY.
“WHY, you look ﬁve years older, Tom,” was
Miss Hannah’s exclamation when her sailor
boy reached the cottage on the shore of Way’s Land-
ing pond.
Tom considered this something of a compliment.
His youth, he thought, kept him from doing things
that he might do if he looked older. And his appear-
ance had improved very much in other ways. He
had seen more of the world, more of its people. It
is doubtful whether anything could have induced him
to stand on his head and cut capers now, as he did
only a few months before when he bought the point
from old Andrew Carter.
The fact was, he had seen two very ﬁne models,
and almost without knowing it, he was trying to be
as much like them as he could. Governor Blake and
Colonel Justice were different from any men he had
met before. Both highly educated and accomplished,
men who were used to courts and camps and the best
social life; digniﬁed, yet gentle and courteous to
every one, they had shown him what a good man
298


NED DARLING’S SALVAGE MONEY. 299
can make of himself. And they were both, after all
their long experiences, in the most robust health,
because they had taken care of themselves. Mr.
Farnsworth was a good man ; but he was an invalid,
and was often cross and peevish. Tom was like the
rest of us in this, for we all try to follow a model in
some point or other, though we do not always know
it; and it is just as easy to have a gentleman for a
model as a blackguard.
“Now I want to hear every word of it, Tom,”
Aunt Hannah said. “If you’re going to be taking
schooners about the world, you must tell me all
about it.”
So Tom had to tell the story of his voyage all over
again, from the hoisting of the distress signal, to his
safe arrival in New York harbor and the offer made
him by the schooner’s owners.
“ What! And be oﬁ at sea all the time!” she
cried, when he reached that part. “And leave me
here wondering whether you’re drowned or not?
No, indeed; I’ll have you in no such business as
that. Better be on the beach saving lives, than on
the sea losing them.
“ I have had two letters since you went away,” she
continued; “ one for myself, and one for you. And
here is yours, ﬁrst.”
“Why, it’s from Ned Darling!” Tom exclaimed,
as soon as he saw the writing; and he cut open the
envelope in a hurry.
“ Slow work, this law business,” Ned wrote. “ The


300 THE BEA CH PA TROL.
."
thing still hangs ﬁre, though Mr. Farnsworth says
we are sure of a good verdict. But we have to go
back to your station for a few days, with a Notary
Public, to take the testimony of Captain Powers and
the crew. You see we have to prove that we really
brought the ship ashore. They’ll want us to prove
that there really is such a ship, I suppose, though she
lies here right under ‘their noses. Anyhow, Mr.
Farnsworth and I will be down at the station before
long, and if you should be home at Way’s Landing,
of course we’d go there to see you.”
“Why, they may be here any day,” Tom cried,
“for this letter was written nearly two weeks ago.
Now what is your letter, Aunt Hannah ? ”
Miss Perry’s letter was expected to be a great sur-
prise to Tom, and she was a little disappointed when
he read it without any particular signs of delight.
It was from a real estate agent in Atlantic City,
saying that he had a customer who had been looking
at Miss Perry’s land at the point, and who might
be induced to pay ﬁve hundred dollars for it. He
naturally supposed that the land was Miss Hannah’s,
because the title stood in her name.
“I think he’ll have to bid again,” Tom said, after
he had read the letter. “ If it’s worth that now, it
will be worth more after a while, and nobody ever
oﬂers as much for a place as he is willing to pay.
Anyhow, Mr. Farnsworth will be here pretty soon,
and we will see what he thinks about it.”
“ You are getting to be such a business man,


NED DARLING‘S SAL VA GE /IIONE Y. 301
Tom,” Miss Hannah said, “that I think you know
pretty well what to do yourself; though it is always
well to have good advice, of course.”
“ A man needs to know something about business
to get along in this world,” Tom answered. “And
I don’t forget that I have a dear old aunty to look
out for, who is growing older every day, though she
doesn’t show it a bit.”
When Mr. Farnsworth and Ned arrived, Faith
being busy at school in Boston, there were many
more things to be talked over than the oﬁer for the
land.
“The owners of the schooner have offered me
a command in their service, sir,” Tom explained;
“and of course it is something of a temptation.
But I want to make up my mind what is best for
me to do, and then do it without considering what
will be most pleasure. I can’t afford to pick out
the pleasant jobs, at my age.”
“There are a number of things that you must
consider,” Mr. Farnsworth told him, “ before accept-
ing or declining such an offer. First of all, whether
you desire to leave the Life-Saving Service; and
if you do, whether you care to follow the sea.”
“ I should feel badly about leaving the Life-Saving
Service, sir,” Tom replied, “for I am very fond of
it. But if I did leave it, I should rather be a sea-
captain than anything else.”
“About the land, I think there is no doubt that
your own judgment is correct,” Mr. Farnsworth


304 THE BEACH PATROL.
same opinion. So that is settled, and I am to stay
with my old friends on the beach.”
“ I am afraid you set too much store by my opin-
ion, ” Mr. Farnsworth said, with a smile. “ The
best legacy that your father has left you or could
leave you is a brave and honest heart; and if you
leave the Life-Saving Service two years from now
with as good a record as you have made so far, you
will honor his memory, and please me.
“ You must have imagined,” he went on, after a
brief pause, “that I have some deeper interest in you
than appears upon the surface. It was not merely
your swimming out to the Barracouta and taking us
ashore that interested me in you. Any of your crew
would have done that if they had had the opportunity.
But what it is that interests me in you we will allow
to remain a little secret for the present. You have
your secret in the sealed packet, and I shall keep
mine till the proper time comes.”
“Why, this is growing quite romantic !” Ned
Darling laughed; “sealed packet, unknown inheri-
tance ; mysterious friend ! It’s almost like a story.”
“ Well, We’ve talked enough about my aﬁairs,”
Tom hastened to say, anxious to change the subject.
“ Now let’s talk about yours. How much money are
you going to get out of that scorched cotton ship?”
“Don’t I wish I knew !” Ned retorted. “But I
don’t, and I don’t see any way to ﬁnd out, at present.
First, we have to get the court to decide in our favor ;
and then when ship and cargo are sold we will get


NED DARLING’S SALVAGE IIIONEY. 305
whatever percentage of the proceeds the court allows
us. I thought we’d get the whole thing settled in a
week or two; but it’s desperately slow work.”
“ Yes, the law moves slowly,” Mr. Farnsworth
broke in. “The law is a dangerous and troublesome
thing to tamper with, my young friends, and I advise
you both to keep away from it whenever you can.
There is so much of it, you see. First, there is the
statute law, then the common law, and then a thou-
sand decisions deﬁning what each law means. When
our legislatures make a law that every fence shall
be painted green, no one knows whether that means
green or blue until the Supreme Court has passed
upon it. There is no doubt in the case of a decision
in Darling’s favor; but what the amount will be is
still a deep mystery.
“ By the way,” he continued, “ we want an affida-
vit from you, Tom. With all this talk I had almost
forgotten it. We have affidavits from all the other
members of your crew, testifying that Darling and
his companion brought the cotton ship ashore while
she was burning; and now we want yours to the
same effect. Then we must go before a notary pub-
lic and have him certify it. All these little things
have to be done very carefully.”
The affidavit that Mr. Farnsworth had prepared
seemed to Tom to be wonderfully full of such puzzling
words as “ the aforesaid,” and “the deponent further
declares,” and other technical things; but he showed
the lawyer the way to Judge Naylor’s house, the


306 THE BEACH PATROL.
I
Judge being a notary; and there Tom signed the
paper, and held up his hand and declared that what
it contained was “ the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth.”
Aunt Hannah was disappointed that afternoon,
having set her heart upon having‘ Mr. Farnsworth
and Ned to help eat the good supper she had pre-
pared; but they were compelled to start early, and
she and Tom had to eat alone.
There was something Tom said at supper, how-
ever, that pleased his aunt wonderfully. It was a
proposition he made to her; and she. must have
accepted it, for Tom had not been back at the station
long before a carpenter appeared from Atlantic City
and went to work at his little patchwork house on
the point, and ripped off the odd weather boards and
put on new ones, and made a great many changes
inside. And then a mason came and repaired the
chimney and put on new plaster; and then a painter,
and gave it a good painting without and within; so
that it became as snug and cosy a little cottage as
could have been found on the whole beach.
Of course these improvements were made to put
the house in ﬁt condition for Aunt Hannah to spend
the summer in; that hardly needs saying. And a
sloop came down the river from Way’s Landing
loaded with furniture and other household belong-
ings; and as soon as the chill days of early spring
were over, Aunt Hannah herself appeared on the
beach, well satisﬁed to have a seaside cottage for the


308 THE BEA CH PA TROL.
see it is lonesome here, and I wanted something to
be a protection for you when I a1n away. Captain
Powers says that if you need help at any time, you
can just hoist a ﬂag in the daytime or a lantern at
night, and our lookout will see it, and he will send
somebody down here at once. I am going to run
the halliards into the attic window, so that you can
hoist the signal without going outdoors.”
By the time that the station season closed, Miss
Hannah felt so secure in the cottage that she was
not in the least afraid of being left alone.
“Afraid!” she exclaimed; “I’d like to see any-
body interfere with me! I don’t think they’ll see
any signal for help hoisted on that pole very soon.”
From Captain Powers down, every member of the
crew soon became much attached to Tom’s eccentric
but warm-hearted aunt. They kept her supplied with
sea food whenever they had time to spare; and when
on Beach Patrol they drank her tea and ate her cook-
ies with great gusto. -
With the summer days came the expected sum-
mons from Mr. Farnsworth, telling Tom to make
ready to sail on the yacht, this time as ﬁrst mate.
And this was followed shortly by a letter from Ned
Darling.
“ I’m so sorry to leave this ﬁne country — and you,
Tom,” he wrote. “ But it’s got to be done, you know.
We’ve got our verdict, and the Glengarry has been
sold, with what was left of her cargo, and we have
our money. I can’t explain all the legal steps to


NED DARLING’S SALVAGE MONEY. 309
you, but Andy McDougall and I have got nine thou-
sand four hundred and seventy-two dollars and ﬁfty
cents apiece. She sold for thirty-seven thousand
eight hundred and ninety dollars, and we got one-
half of it, equally divided between us. So ain’t we
rich ?
“It may be many a day before I see you again,
old fellow. But I’ll tell you what I hope. I hope
to be in Way’s Landing on the great day when you
are twenty-one years old, and see you open that mys-
terious packet and get your legacy.”
~/rI!-


CHAPTER XX.
7
TOM S LEGACY.
“:[ DON’T know what I should ever have done!
Just suppose Tom’s birthday came in the sum-
mer, when we are in the little house on the beach.
I never could have got all these people into that tiny
house. Let—me—see. There’s Mr. Farnsworth
and Faith coming, that’s two; and Captain Powers,
he’s three ; and Ned Darling, he’s four; and Tom
and I will make six at the table. It’ll be a mercy
if I have spoons enough, with so many things left
down at the beach.”
Miss Hannah was in a state of mind on the morn-
ing of Tom’s twenty-ﬁrst birthday, for not one of her
guests had arrived yet —not even Tom himself. She
went nervously about making everything ready for
them; brushing off a little dust here and there, wip-
ing a speck from a window pane, taking care that
the ﬁre was at just the right degree of brightness.
Though nearly ﬁve years older than when we ﬁrst
met her, there was hardly any change in her appear-
ance. Two summers in the little cottage on the
beach had done her a world of good. And Tom’s
thoughtfulness had relieved her of one great care.
310


TOM’S LEGACY. 311
A year before he had insisted that Aunt Hannah
must have a “help” in the house, and had himself
employed Mary Bryce, a Way’s Landing girl of un-
certain age, but of undoubted skill in the kitchen, to
do the cooking.
Two years more, after his voyage to Vera Cruz,
Tom had spent in the Great Harbor Life-Saving
Station, standing his watch, patrolling the beach,
and making occasional trips out to distressed vessels
in the surf-boat.
There had not been enough changes in the station
to advance him materially in the service, but he was
no longer the last man in the crew. Jim Hoover
had been discovered carrying a false key to the time-
detector, so that he could lounge in a corner some-
where while he should have been on patrol; and the
discovery had been followed by his instant discharge
as a matter of course. So Tom had moved up one
step; and had become such a right-hand man to the
keeper that Captain Powers looked with regret for
the day when he should quit the service. i
“You have been a faithful and intelligent surf-
man, Perry,” the Captain said, “and I shall ﬁnd it
hard to ﬁll your place.”
“ But I am not going to leave you until spring, at
any rate, Captain,” Tom replied. “ No matter what
we ﬁnd in that wonderful packet of mine, which is to
be opened on my birthday. I shall not desert the
ship till the season ends. And I should like to have
you present at that great ceremony, Captain. Mr.


TOM’S LEGACY. 313
“Yes, the sooner, the better,” said Ned. “ I have
been torn with curiosity for two years to know what
is in that envelope.”
“No time like the present,” said Aunt Hannah;
and she immediately left the room to get the packet.
Then arose the question of who should open it;
but Tom soon settled that.
“ It is customary for all large estates to be in the
hands of a lawyer,” he said laughingly. “This one
may not be large enough to require such caution;
but since we have so good a lawyer here, I think it
should be left in his hands.”
As he spoke he drew up a little marble-topped table
in front of Mr. Farnsworth and laid the packet upon it.
“Doesn’t it make you feel nervous, Tom?” Faith
asked. “I should think you would be almost afraid
to have it opened.”
“ Not a bit, Faith,” Tom replied. “ You see I
have never expected to ﬁnd anything valuable in it,
so I cannot be disappointed.”
They were all remarkably quiet and expectant as
Mr. Farnsworth arose and stood for a moment with
his hands on the table.
“I think it is only right that I should tell you,
my friends,” he said, “that this packet is no mystery
to me, because I know pretty nearly what it contains.
I helped to do it u'p. Tom, when your poor father was
too weak to sit upright.” .
He paused here a moment as if the recollection of
the scene might overcome him; then went on: 


316 THE BEACH PATROL.
“ Be a good boy, my dear child, and a good man,
and do to others always as you would have them
do to you, are the last words of your loving and
dying FATHER.”
“ I stood by your father in his last moments, Tom,”
Mr. Farnsworth said, raising his right hand as though
making an affidavit; “ and now,-standing before you
on this day when you become a man, I certify that
you have been as good a boy as the most loving
father could desire; and I believe that you will be a
good, honorable, trustworthy man.”
“Thank you, sir!” Tom said, in a very shaky
voice.
How strange it was that for the moment the other
contents of the packet should be forgotten ! For ﬁve
years Tom had wondered what they could be; but
now that the envelope was open, he could think of
nothing but his father’s sad letter.
Then the lawyer took all the folded papers from
the envelope, and hurriedly looked them over. They
looked like wills, or title deeds, or shares of stock.
“ Deep Gulch,” he read from the back of a paper,
and slowly shook his head, as if to say that that was
of no account. “Black Horse Mining Company;
no, worth nothing at all. Burnt Wood; no, no
value. Ah! Forlorn Hope Mining Company. Now
that is what I was looking for. Let me see; ten
shares, nominal value one thousand dollars. And
here is another of the same kind. Forlorn Hope is


JPN .Drys4 B3
Drysdale, William, 1852-1901
The beach patrol : a story
of the 1ife—saving service
APR 08 Z003