Eddie agreed with that. Not only was it fun, but it was a great thrill to climb up to the top of the lighthouse.
Captain Daniels got some rags and a can of window cleaner out of a small tool shed at the foot of the lighthouse.
“Why don’t you let us do it today, Captain Daniels?” Teena asked. “No use in your climbing all of those stairs.”
“You win,” the lightkeeper said, smiling. “I’ll wait down here.”
Eddie and Teena took the rags and cleaner and started up the steel stairs which spiraled up the outside to the top of the lighthouse. The stairs were perfectly safe, as a waist-high railing prevented any possibility of an accident.
Reaching the top, they paused on the narrow steel balcony that circled the light. The view across the bay was spectacular—blue water and whitecaps as far as they could see. A couple of steamers dragged banners of smoke across the distant horizon. In the other direction they saw Oceanview sprawling out inland from the shore of the bay. Both Acme Aircraft Company and the college campus were in plain view.
After filling themselves with the view, they got busy on the light. It was like polishing a giant lantern chimney. It had thick, wavy glass to magnify the beam of the enormous electric lamp which rotated inside, making three complete turns a minute. Being daytime, the light was turned off. In fact, Eddie never had seen the light up close at night. He imagined it would be very blinding, although he doubted if anyone ever would be foolish enough to climb up and look into it. It was bright enough, even from a distance, as it swept its white warning finger through the sky.
He and Teena worked away at spreading the window cleaner. After it had dried on the thick glass, they went over it carefully with their soft rags. The dirt and the white deposit left from the salt spray came off easily, leaving the glass bright as crystal.
“I guess that’s it,” Eddie said, after they had made a complete circle of the glass. He paused to take one last look around.
“We’d better be getting back home, too,” Teena suggested. “It must be three o’clock.”