CHAPTER XVII.
A LETTER.
When the beach-wagon had been hauled into position, the work ofrescuing the life savers from the lighter was trifling, and the threewere no more than ashore before Keeper Downey cried sharply:
"Now then, let's get the apparatus home, and the patrol out as soon asmay be. There's some show of excuse for our not being able to save theproperty here; but in case a vessel came ashore while we were foolin'around with a lot of lighters, and life should be lost, we'd findourselves in a bad pickle."
The keeper was not the only member of the crew who feared that thenight's misadventure might have some fatal ending. The same thought wasin the mind of every man, and it was not necessary to urge them forward.
Benny welcomed the opportunity to restore the circulation of blood tohis chilled limbs, and pushed with the utmost of his strength at thetail of the cart by the keeper's side.
The heavy wagon was dragged over the rocks and through the sand ata rate of speed which, under other circumstances, might have beenimpossible, and when they had nearly arrived at the station Tom Downeywas less apprehensive regarding the possibility of a wreck, for at thatmoment they were passing over the highest point of the cliffs, fromwhich a good view of the ocean could be had.
Save for a few fleecy clouds, the sky was clear, and the twinklingstars gave out sufficient light to show that not a sail was withintheir range of vision.
"I reckon we can count the worst of our work as bein' over for thisnight; but there won't be a very pretty picture alongshore to-morrowmorning," the keeper said to Benny, and the latter replied with a toneof thankfulness in his voice:
"Things will look better than you believed at one time, Mr. Downey, forthen it seemed as if you'd be called upon to hunt for the bodies of thecrew among the wreckage."
"Right you are, my lad, and it's little less than a sin to grumblebecause two or three lighters and a stranded steamer may have beenbroken up, when the crew came safely through as tough a place as theywere ever in. It's a great pity I allowed you to go with us."
"But I've come out of it without any more harm than any of the others,sir, and it will help me along in learning to be a surfman."
"You might have got the lesson in an easier fashion, lad. It's hardenough for tough men like us to have the clothing frozen to our bodies,but a boy like you can't well stand such hardships."
"But I'm all right, sir," Benny replied, striving in vain to preventhis teeth from chattering with the cold. "Leastways, I will be as soonas we get to the station, and this work with the cart warms a fellow upwonderfully."
Downey did not reply until after a long pause, and then he saidemphatically:
"If pluck is necessary in the making of a good surfman, you should be arare hand at the business, No. 8, before another year has passed."
What a welcome it was which Benny received from Fluff when they finallyarrived at the station and the beach-wagon had been hauled into theboat-house!
The tiny dog capered, and barked, and yelped until it seemed as if herealized how great had been the danger to which his master was exposed,and so violently loving were his demonstrations that Benny could notmake any headway at changing his clothing until after having devoted acertain time to his pet.
Then the dog greeted each of the men in turn, and Joe Cushing said ashe took him almost affectionately in his arms:
"You an' No. 8 make up such a team, small though you are, as I neverhad the good fortune to see before."
A pot of steaming coffee was on the stove, and the cook spread on thetable such provisions as were most conveniently at hand, in order thatthose who were forced to go out on the coast again to do patrol dutymight refresh themselves without waste of time.
Once the men had put on dry clothing it was as if all previous dangerswere forgotten, and Sam Hardy suggested that they man the surf-boat inorder to go in search of the life-boat.
"She'll pound herself to pieces on the rocks 'twixt now an' mornin',whereas by a bit of hard work at this time we may save her, an' in sodoin' prevent it from bein' said along the shore that we allowed such acraft to be wrecked."
Tom Downey hesitated; he questioned whether he was warranted in riskinghuman lives to save what might be replaced by an expenditure ofdollars and cents, and perhaps would have turned a deaf ear to Sam'ssuggestion, but that every other member of the crew evinced a strongdesire to make the attempt.
Their record for saving life and property was exceptionally good at theDepartment, as every man knew full well, and to get such a black markas must be set down against them in case the life-boat should be lost,was anything rather than pleasing to contemplate.
"I claim that we are not warranted in taking the chances," Downey saidslowly and thoughtfully; "but if you fellows are so set on it, we'llmake the try."
As he spoke Benny began to overhaul the spare oil-skins--the suit hewore when they set out before having been thrown off when he with Hardyleaped into the water--, and Downey asked sharply:
"What are you about, lad?"
"There's another small coat here somewhere," and Benny hurriedly tossedover the assortment of waterproof garments.
"Well, and what if there is?"
"Didn't you say we were to go for the life-boat, sir?"
The crew laughed heartily, as if there was something exceedinglyludicrous in this question, and Benny looked around in astonishment.
"Do you count on going with us?" Downey asked, as soon as he couldcontrol his mirth sufficiently to speak.
"I thought you would let me, sir, seeing as how I went the first time."
"Because we were so foolish as to take you then, there is no reason forcommitting the same fault again. You are to stay here with the cook andFluff C. Foster. Once in a night is enough for you to risk your lifewhen there's no especial call for so doing."
Benny appeared positively pained, and Sam Hardy whispered to him whilethe others were making their preparations:
"It wouldn't be right, lad, for us to take you, even though it mightbe convenient, which it isn't. We're goin' in the surf-boat, and therewill be snug stowin' when the full crew is aboard. If it was a caseof fair weather an' smooth water you'd have to stay behind, becausewe couldn't pack you in; so look cheerful, an' see to it that we haveplenty of hot coffee on our return."
This explanation comforted the boy greatly, and he at once set aboutdoing what he could to assist in the preparations for departure.
Then, after the boat had been launched and the men pulled off on theirperilous work, with Fluff in his arms he stood at the entrance of theboat-house, watching until the tiny craft was swallowed up in thedarkness, and when it was no longer possible to distinguish any objectupon the heaving waters the lad returned to the mess-room, there tomake ready an appetizing meal for his comrades.
The cook had taken advantage of the opportunity to go to bedimmediately the crew returned with the beach-wagon, and Benny was insole command of the kitchen with, as he said, "Fluff acting as mate."
Not until two hours had elapsed did the life savers return, and thenthey brought the life-boat with them, none the worse, so Dick Sawyerdeclared, for the pounding she had received upon the rocks.
Benny met them at the door of the boat-house, and, as might have beenexpected, was eager to learn whether any serious injury had beenwrought.
As soon as the two boats were housed, and before they entered themess-room, Sam Hardy gave an account of the work by saying:
"We found her just inside the broken water near where you an' I wentoverboard. It's likely she's been flung against the cliff a good manytimes; but, so far as we can make out, scratched paint is the onlydamage done. It wasn't a wonderfully easy job to get hold of her, butonce we were there for that purpose you can make certain, No. 8, thatnone of us were minded to let any ordinary difficulties put an end tothe work. That's all there is to the story, and it can be seen that youdidn't lose anything, except a disagreeable time, by not going with us."
While Sam wa
s speaking the remainder of the crew had entered themess-room, and an exclamation of pleasurable surprise burst from thelips of all as they saw the meal which Benny had made ready.
"I've said before, an' this proves it, that the time ain't so far offwhen No. 8 will be able to pass examination as our cook," Joe Gushingexclaimed, and Tom Downey added gravely:
"I hope we can make something better of the lad than that. There's toomuch in Benny for us to tie him down to such work, and, unless I'mgreatly mistaken, he is entitled to look many pegs higher than a job assurfman."
Then the wearied crew sat themselves down for a pleasant half-hour,which would not have been enjoyed had they been forced to dependwholly upon the man who was paid for preparing their food.
Not until an hour past midnight did Benny go to bed, and next morninghe was down-stairs with the earliest riser of the crew.
The wind had not spent its fury. On the contrary, it was blowing a fullgale, bringing with it a downpour of sleet and snow which would preventthe wrecking tugs from returning to the scene of the disaster.
As soon as breakfast had been eaten all the men, with the exceptionof him whose duty it was to remain on watch, set out to ascertain theamount of damage done, and, as a matter of course, Benny accompaniedthem.
Fluff was given the choice of going with his master or remaining behindin the warm station, and after poking his pink nose out of doors for asingle moment, he quickly retreated to the kitchen, giving evidence, asSam Hardy declared, of "havin' a deal of sound common-sense."
The situation of affairs in the immediate vicinity of the steamer waseven worse than had been anticipated. All the lighters but one hadcrashed into the stranded craft, making havoc of the timbers as theyforced their heavy bows into the hull, and completely destroying whatthe waves had previously spared.
Along the shore in every direction were scattered fragments of lightersand steamer, until every cove which made in between the rocks was piledhigh with these evidences of devastation.
"We shan't be troubled much longer with wrecking crews," Joe Cushingsaid, when they had surveyed the entire shore in the vicinity. "There'snothin' to be done to the steamer except freight away such parts of heras are worth the savin', and as for the lighters, they will do no moreservice unless it be as kindlin' wood."
"And yet all this might, perhaps, have been avoided if the wreckers haddone their work properly; but since they didn't, we shall be asked toexplain how it happens we allowed so much property to be destroyed,"Tom Downey said with a sigh, and Sam Hardy added cheerily:
"If all hands tell the truth, I'm not afraid of an investigationconcernin' last night's work, for the crew never lived that, unaided,could have prevented the heavy craft, fitted with rotten windlasses andapologies for cables, from goin' adrift while the wind was as strong aswhen we came out."
There was nothing the men could do even toward saving the wreckagenearest the shore while the storm continued so violent, and after anhour or more had been spent viewing the scene all hands returned to thestation.
It was an idle day, save as concerned the men on watch, and afterdinner, when Benny would have pored over the rules regarding drill,Tom Downey suggested that he make himself thoroughly familiar with theofficial instructions for saving drowning persons, printed for thebenefit of the life-saving men.
During two hours or more No. 8 read and re-read the following lines,after which Sam Hardy questioned him on the different points until itwas proven to the satisfaction of all that the lad had learned hislesson thoroughly.
Since it is to the advantage of every boy who ventures into the waterfor pleasure to know exactly what should be done when another is indanger of drowning, Benny's afternoon lesson is here set down exactlyas he studied it:
"1. When you approach a person drowning in the water, assure him, witha loud and firm voice, that he is safe.
"2. Before jumping in to save him, divest yourself as far and asquickly as possible, of all clothes; tear them off if necessary, butif there is not time, loose at all events the foot of your drawers, ifthey are tied, as, if you do not do so, they fill with water and dragyou.
"3. On swimming to a person in the sea, if he be struggling, do notseize him then, but keep off a few seconds till he gets quiet, for itis sheer madness to take hold of a man when he is struggling in thewater, and if you do you run a great risk.
"4. Then get close to him and take fast hold of the hair of his head,turn him as quickly as possible onto his back, give him a sudden pull,and this will cause him to float, then throw yourself on your back alsoand swim for the shore, both hands having hold of his hair, you on yourback and he also on his, and of course his back to your stomach. Inthis way you will get sooner and safer ashore than by any other means,and you can easily thus swim with two or three persons; the writer haseven, as an experiment, done it with four, and gone with them forty orfifty yards in the sea. One great advantage of this method is that itenables you to keep your head up, and also to hold the person's head upyou are trying to save. It is of primary importance that you take fasthold of the hair and throw both the person and yourself on your backs.After many experiments, it is usually found preferable to all othermethods. You can in this manner float nearly as long as you please, oruntil a boat or other help can be obtained.
"5. It is believed there is no such thing as a death grasp; at least itis very unusual to witness it. As soon as a drowning man begins to getfeeble and to lose his recollection, he gradually slackens his holduntil he quits it altogether. No apprehension need, therefore, be felton that head when attempting to rescue a drowning person.
"6. After a person has sunk to the bottom, if the water be smooth, theexact position where the body lies may be known by the air-bubbles,which will occasionally rise to the surface, allowance being of coursemade for the motion of the water, if in a tide-way or stream, whichwill have carried the bubbles out of a perpendicular course in risingto the surface. A body may be often regained from the bottom, beforetoo late for recovery, by diving for it in the direction indicated bythese bubbles.
"7. On rescuing a person by diving to the bottom, the hair of the headshould be seized by one hand only, and the other used in conjunctionwith the feet, in raising yourself and the drowning person to thesurface.
"8. If in the sea, it may sometimes be a great error to try to get toland. If there be a strong 'outsetting' tide, and you are swimmingeither by yourself, or have hold of a person who cannot swim, then geton your back and float till help comes. Many a man exhausts himself bystemming the billows for the shore on a back-going tide, and sinks inthe effort, when, if he had floated, a boat or other aid might havebeen obtained.
"9. These instructions apply alike to all circumstances, whether asregards the roughest sea or smooth water."
When night came it was what sailors call a "dirty" one, and Sam Hardyannounced that Benny would not be allowed to go on patrol.
"You know we made the agreement, lad, that you might share my watchwith me except when the weather was too bad, and that's what I allowit to be now. There's no good reason why a boy of your years an' sizeshould tramp up an' down this coast for four hours when nothin' more isto come of it than the toughenin' of him. Stay under cover with Fluff,an' if it be so we're called on for work, you shall take your properstation as No. 8 of this 'ere crew."
Benny did his best, and succeeded fairly well, in keeping from his facethe disappointment which came over him at thus being, for the firsttime, deprived of the opportunity to share in his comrade's tasks.
He went to bed while Sam was yet on patrol, and nothing disturbed hisslumbers until next morning when the cook set about preparing breakfast.
The report from those who had been on duty was to the effect thatno vessels had been sighted during the night, and that the strandedsteamer had been breaking up rapidly during the past twelve hours.
The sky was yet cloudy, but the snow and sleet had ceased to fall, andthe wind showed signs of abating.
Before breakfast was rea
dy the wrecking tugs appeared off shore, andtwo hours later some of their crews visited the station.
Keeper Downey wrote out his report, and when that was done the work ofthe life savers, so far as the steamer and lighters were concerned, hadcome to an end, except as it might be possible later to pick up suchwreckage as should drift ashore.
Then the crew settled down to the dull routine of pleasant-weatherwork, occupying the greater portion of the time in drilling andpatrolling the coast.
Benny could give a very good synopsis of, and in many cases repeatverbatim, every chapter in the _Revised Regulations_. Each of the crewin turn had taught Fluff C. Foster a new trick, until his head was sostored with knowledge of this kind that a full hour was required inwhich to display all his accomplishments, and Joe Cushing had begun tolay his plans for the day when he and No. 8 were to visit the city cladin full uniform.
Then came a letter which disturbed all this serenity, and plunged theinmates of the station into a most painful state of perplexity andapprehension.
An ordinary-looking envelope covered the missive, such an one asmight have brought an account of the simplest business transaction,and yet it threatened to change the whole course of affairs for thisparticular life-saving crew.
It was addressed simply to the keeper of the station, and bore thepost-mark of a town in the interior of New York State.
Tom Downey opened it carelessly, read the lines hurriedly at first, andthen more slowly, as if he found it difficult to understand the meaning.
He sat with his gaze fixed upon the page so long that Sam Hardy, whohad been questioning Benny regarding the proper method of landing in asmall boat through the surf, asked curiously:
"What's gone wrong? You look as if there was bad news in that letter."
"And at first glance it strikes me it _is_ bad news," the keeperreplied. "I was tryin' to make up my mind whether it would be well tolet all hands know what may come to us, or if anything would be gainedby keepin' it a secret for a spell."
"If it's bad news, the sooner we know it the better, accordin' to myway of thinkin'," Joe Cushing said promptly; and this remark decidedTom Downey, for without further hesitation he read the following aloud:
"'MY DEAR SIR:
"'I see by the newspapers that the ship _Amazonia_ was wrecked nearyour station, and the sole survivor was a boy ten or twelve years ofage, who gave his name as Benjamin H. Foster, stating that his fatherand mother had died in Calcutta.
"'I have every reason to believe that boy to be my brother's son, inwhich case it shall be my duty to care for him.
"'Will you kindly ask him his father's name? If it should have been"Stephen G.," then you may draw on me for sufficient money to pay youngBenny's passage to this place, and for so much additional as he may beindebted to you for board and other necessaries of life.
"'Very respectfully yours, "'ANDREW FOSTER.'"
For fully a moment after Mr. Downey ceased reading no one spoke, andthe silence was so profound that Fluff looked anxiously from one to theother as if fearing some disaster had befallen the crew.
Then it was Sam Hardy who spoke, and he found it necessary to clear histhroat several times before it was possible to control his voice.
"What was your father's name, Benny?"
"It was Stephen G., but I don't believe the man who wrote that letteris my uncle, because if he is, why didn't I know something about him?Or, when father and mother were so sick, why didn't he write to them?"
"Of course that's a question we can't answer, lad. It may be your folksdidn't send him word, or, perhaps the letters went astray. There are adozen good reasons which might be found, and it ain't likely he'd beclaimin' a boy he never saw if there wasn't any relationship between'em."
"I hung 'round Calcutta long enough for him to claim me if he'd wantedto, an' surely he must have known father was dead, 'cause I've heardmother say it was reported among the shippin' news in all the Americanpapers."
"You don't seem to be very much pleased at the idea of havin' an uncleup in 'York State?" Sam Hardy said, speaking a trifle more cheerfullythan before, and Benny cried excitedly:
"Pleased! Of course I ain't! He can't be much of an uncle, else hewould have helped father an' mother along when they needed it. He canwrite a dozen letters before I'll go anywhere to live off of peoplethat ain't wantin' me very bad, else I'd have heard from 'em long ago."
"This ain't a matter to be settled off-hand, Benny," Keeper Downey saidgravely. "If the man who wrote this letter is your uncle, and it seemshe is, I'm not certain but that he could force you by law to go withhim. At all events, it's his duty to give you some help in the world,and we must look at the matter from all sides before deciding."
"If you'd rather I wouldn't stay here, Mr. Downey, Fluff an' me will gooff somewhere else; but we won't take up with his offer."
"Now look here, Benny," and Sam Hardy, reaching over, took the boy bythe hand. "There's no question about our wantin' you to stay here,for we've come to look on you as belongin' to us, an' I'll venture tosay I'm speakin' now what's in the heart of every man here. We likeyou because you're a sensible mate, an industrious lad, an' one'swho's doin' his level best to get into a hard callin'. If we thoughtonly of ourselves that letter would go into the fire before you couldsay 'Jack Robinson.' It's your future that must be considered. Bystayin' here you'll never be more 'n a surfman, an' a lad of your ageshould aim higher than that, whether he reaches the mark set or not.I ain't lookin' down upon the business I've followed all my life, an'I'll always uphold that it's an honor to any man to be a member ofa life-saving crew; but at the same time I know, an' you know, thatit's possible for a lad to go a good bit higher. What's decided on nowaffects your whole life, an' settles whether you're to stay in thelife-saving service, or, perhaps, be a shinin' light in the world. Ivote that all hands of us study over this thing till to-morrow afterbreakfast, and then let each one, includin' Benny, give the result ofhis figgerin.'"
"That's the proper way," Tom Downey said quickly, catching eagerly atthe suggestion. "You'll remember all Sam Hardy has said, Benny, forit's true, so far as regards yourself an' us. We want you with us; butI hope there's nobody in this crew who would be willing to keep you atthe expense of your future. Think it all over calmly and quietly, lad,as Sam proposes, an' you can count on this crew doin' their level bestfor whatever may be to your future good."