CHAPTER XVIII.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 42, 22 March 1884, Page 4

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE LIGHT-HOUSE VISITOR. The broad rays of noonday were stealing in through the narrow window when Lighthouse Dick roused out ol his stupor, and staring around him bewilderingly, found himself lying upon the floor of hi3 little room. The fallen letters upon the floor, the overturned chair, and the sickly .glare of the still burning lamp at once revealed to Mm what had occurred. " How incomprehensible," muttered he, as he slowly raised his stiffened limbs from their hard bed. I must have fallen asleep in my chair. I remember something of being strangely drowsy. I must have fallen asleep, and slipping out of the chair, have lain on the floor all night." At this movement there was a hasty and continued knocking at his door, and Duke's voice was saying there : "I will try once more, and if I cannot wake him I must break open the door. I am afraid something is the matter." "lain all right now, "answered Dick, but his limbs wavered as he crossed the room, and his head was still dizzy and contused, though he managed to shoot back the bolt and open the door. "Ah, I am much relieved," exclaimed Duke, heartily. "1 don't know what I feared, but I was quite frightened about you. I've knocked here half a dozen times since daybreak. "' "I've been strangely asleep and have just roused up. I don't think my head is quite clear yet /'said Light-house Dick, dropping into a chair and rubbing his hands across his forehead. "You are paler certainly than usual," returned Duke, promptly, and putting his head down the stair-way, he called : "Here, Si, bring me a cup of strong coffee." And Dick heard some one come up the stairs and meet Duke, who brought him in the coffee and held it for him while he drank with eager, feverish thirst the reviving beverage. The colour came back to his lips, and the nausea and dizziness vanished almost as soon as he had swallowed the coffee. "Now I am all right, I think," he declared, presently. "l only need a little fresh air. I'll go up to the balcony walk." Duke gave him the most assiduous attention, and watched him anxiously as he paced to and fro along the railed walk, when they had mounted the stairs, and he said, presently, with an air of great relief : " You are improving fast. You begin to look like yourself. Now I think a good breakfast will complete the cure." "It is all very queer," xeturned Dick. " I don't remember ever having such experience before. I must see a physician when I go ashore." "A little physical disturbance, nothing more serious I imagine," said Duke, care- j lessly, and added lightly, " I'll run down and tell Si to have your breakfast on the table. You may come down as soon as you please." And when Light-house Dick descended, he found the kitchen table set out for him. Si was evidently in the pantry, for he could hear a bustling about there and the movement of dishes. Presently Duke called him, and Light-house Dick did not turn around, when he heard him come out and pass behind his chair and go stumbling up the stairs in Si's awkward fashion. " I ought to keep double watch to-night," said Dick, when Duke came down again and looked into the kitchen. "I'm sure I've slept enough to last me a couple of days. And I'll go ashore pretty soon I think. I want to see how Jack is getting on. I wish he might be able to come back at once— l — " and here Dick stopped, hesitated a moment, then added, decisively: "I think of taking a vacation. It is quite evident that I need a change of scene for physical reaions. lam confident I shall be mentally improved by an escape from this monotonous life. I may leave you and Jack in possession here for a few months." Duke's face showed no great surprise. " It's quite natural to expect, Pm sure," he replied. " There's a tolerably smooth sea and a iair wind, if you want the boat. But are you sure that you are quite recovered." " I'm waiting to see. Perhaps it would be more prudent to wait till to-morrow and start fresh in the morning. And, besides, you ought to have a rest. I forgot that. " Don't consider me. I'm all right." "I'll wait till to-morrow," he decided, after a moment's reflection, " Then I'll turn in awhile," was Duke's rejoinder. And he went down to his room, whistling gaily as he descended the stairs. "What a light heart the fellow carries," thought Light-house Dick, looking after him enviously. " Woe is me, that I should hide so heavy a one in my breast !" He remained alone until supper time, and then again responded to Duke's call. He did not give the circumstance any significance in his thought, though he remarked that Silas seemed to have plenty of occupation in the pantry, nor did he realise that he had not seen him all day, because he heard him talking to Dick, or supposed he did several times. The next morning at breakfaet time Dick called him, remarking at the same time that ho had sent Silas upstairs to watch for a Bignal, in answer to one he had set, and so the two men took their simple meal together. And when it came time to lower the boat the light-house keeper was in hie room)

making his few preparations for shore, and heard Si Green's shuffling steps go down the stairs again, still without any question of its identity. So he pushed off from the' light-house under the positive impression that he had left Silas Green at work there in its kitchen. And he answered unhesitatingly when he was hailed by a small sailboat, with a sharp, knowing-looking lad at the helm. " Hallo, there ! Be you just from the light-house ever there? Mebbe you can bell me if there's a feller there named Silas Green ?" "Certainly there is." "Can I go up into the light-house and see him?" 11 To be sure, if you'll mount the ladder." " All right ; much obliged," was shouted back, cheerily, And the two boats sped away upon their diverging courses. Duke, from his watch at the light-house, had seen the approaching boat, and there was a slight frown upon his forehead when he perceived the lad push, boldly for the shaft. " What ill wind blows an intruder here to hinder me to-day ?" he muttered, and his tone was not very gracious as he answered the lad's halloo. 11 Who are you ? What do you want ?" The lad gave him a saucy nod. " I'm a citizen of the United States of America, and I'm out inspecting my property. I've come to look after things, and see if you keep everything snug here." "Oh, ho! then you need no courtesy of mine. You're able to take care of yourself," returned Duke, laughing in spite of himself at the odd air of mixed bravado and nonchalance which pervaded every movement of the lad, while he carefully anchored his boat, and then came scrambling up the ladder, vaulting lightly to Duke's side with the exclamation : "Shiver my timbers ! but this ere is what I call the top notch. It's a high old place to live in, now ain't it ? I wouldn't ask any better fun !" " Humph ! that's as your disposition goes. My impresion is, young man, that you are used to rather move stirring times than we enjoy here, and that you'd get precious sick of it in a week. However, that's nothing to do with the business in hand. You want to see the lantern, of course. Being one of the owners, you'll be glad to see it in good condition. Just step up those stairs, and I'll follow to give the explanations due to your claim,"' said Duke, the twinkle in his eye betraying his amusement at the lad's free and easy manner. "By the way, you haven't told me your name, but when you write it on the visitor's book, I shall probably find it familiar. Secretary or assist-ant-secretary at the least." " It's Tom, at your service. " And the soiled cap was pulled off from the unkempt hair, and a most excruciatingly polite bow took the shaggy head nearly to the floor. "Thomas. Ah, yes, very lucid indeed. Several great names have had such a prefix. Not Thomas A. Kempis, I judge— more likely Tom Taylor," pursued Duke ; " for I presume you have a second name." "I hain't found no trouble in getting along with plain Tom, but if anybody has been anxious for two they've called me Limber Tom, at your service, sir, if you need any more help at the light-house," responded Tom, in no whit abashed at this badinage. "My eye ! but them are lamps, now ain't they? It must be jolly work to light 'em up, and see the water grow bright all around you. I've watched 'em lots of times lately, and wondered how Si was getting on." "Si !" exclaimed Duke, losing his playful smile instantly. " Who do you mean ?" "Si Green, of course. I've come off to see him. Ye didn't s'pose I wheedled the boat out of old Monk jist to come on a lark, didyer?" Duke was tapping one foot impatiently, but in a moment he said, in an indifferent tone : " You chose the wrong day then : for Si Green isn't our cook to-day. You'll have to come another time." "Si Green not here? Now, look here, you mustn't think I'm green too, mister : for I happen to know he is here," responded I Limber Tom, setting both arms akimbo, and looking up at Duke, aggressively. "And whats more, I'm going to see him, that's what I come for." "All right, youngster. If you know more than I do about it, go ahead—proceed," quoth Duke, calmly. "If he is here, let me see you find him, that's all." "But 'tother feller told me he was. You hain't drowned poor Si the minute his back was turned, I reckon." And raising his voice, Tom gave a powerful shout. " Hillo, Si Green, tumble up. Here's Limber Tom come to see you ! S-i-1-a-s Gr-e-e-n, hillo !" No answer came. Only the steady splash of the waves against the stones of the foundation, and the shrill cry of a couple of sea-fowl soaring near. A scornful, satirical smile stirred Duke's face from its look of placid indifference. " Perhaps you had better try it again. Satisfy yourself by all means, Master Limber Tom. If your limbs are as powerful as your voice, you deserve your name." "I'll take a look all round. It's mighty queer the other fellow should tell me he was here," muttered Tom, in a tone of indecision ; and its queer, too, that Si didn't send the word he promised. You've no objection to my speering about a bit, eh ?" "None at all, only I must go with you. We haven't many valuables here, but such as they are we're responsible for them, and — you — are — not — precisely the most re-liable-looking individual I have met in the course of my life, Master Limber Tom, and I can't be sure your fingers do not partake of the nature of your name." Tom snapped his fingers with a derisive gesture, and proceeded, to descend the stairs, making as much noise as possible. He laid his hand upon the lock of Dick's door, and finding it fastened, called lustily : "Silas Green ! just say the word if you re in there, and Limber Tom will find a way to get in, lock or no lock." "You are a young braggadocio, Master Limber Tom," said Duke, not without his amusement over the lad's odd ways. ' ' You talk as if you were master here, when you know very well if I choose I may toss you out of the place like a bale of discarded goods, to float or drown, as the case may be." "I ain't afraid of yer, and I reckon you'd find me a tougher subject than you think, responded the undaunted Tom. " But I m free to own I'm kinder bamboozled over this. What a ninny Si Green must be to leave such a snug berth as this ! And why in the world didn't he let me know ? And what in thunder'd the other cove say he was here for?" , And here Tom scratched his shaggy pate again, and looked up into Duke's face with a queer mixture of suspicion and conndence. The latter laughed out. " Well, this is the other cove s room, and he has the key of it in his pocket. However, if you say so, break it open, unless indeed your calls satisfy you that he wn t here. , ,„ „ " It's mighty queer anyhow ! quoth Tom. "When did you say Si Green went away?" , , „ " I didn't say. You insisted that he was here, you know, and it isn't polite to con-

tradict visitors too decidedly. Will you go below to the kitchen ?" Tom descended the stairs, looking very much nonplussed, and rather rueful. j But, once in the kitchen, he suddenly darted forward, exclaiming, excitedly : "Look a-here, mister, the gum-game won't answer any further. You can't pull no wool over Limber Tom's eyes, for here's Si Green's old hat! I'd ha' knowed it if I seed it in a stew-kettle. He's never gone away from here by fair means without that hat, 'cause I happen to know all about him, and he hain't got no other. This is the very one he come down South in." He shook the poor old battered hat in Duke's face. The latter was for the moment discomposed. "What?" stammered he; "did you come with him from the North ? You know all about him then ?" "Of course I do— and about Franky. Now, where's Si ? I tell ye, mister, I ain't a going to be fooled any longer." The discomposure and uncertainty on Duke's fage suddenly cleared away. However it might have come about, he had suddenly made up his mind to some particular course. " Oh, then, it alters the case, if you are an old friend of Green's," he said. " Come this way with me, my man." And he led the way across the narrow entry to his own door, which he unlocked and opened wide, stepping back to give Tom the precedence of entrance. The latter hesitated an instant with that sharp, shrewd look of his sweeping all around them, but something within the room which caught his vision made him forget the caution taught in the hard knocking about the world which his forlorn experiences had hitherto given him, and, with a sharp ejaculation, he strode forward across the threshold. Duke swung the door back to its place with one swift, energetic movement and locked it on the outside. " You'll wait my movements to be let out, Master Limber Tom," he said, authoritatively, and marched up again to his post of observation. (To be continued.)