“Thanks to Jess, it is,” replied Ned, and the girl ran away to escape the admiring eyes.
“How did you get here?” asked Jerry of Sam.
“Why some of us happened to be out fishing just before the storm broke, and we noticed the light wasn’t flashing right. I hurried ashore and met Captain Jenkinson. He had noticed the same thing, so we decided to investigate. We came over in his boat, the Three Bells. What has happened here?”
[CHAPTER XXX]
JESSICA’S FATHER—CONCLUSION
“The scoundrels tried to change the light and wreck a steamer coming up the coast,” replied Mr. Hardack. “If it hadn’t been for the boys here they would have succeeded.”
“If it hadn’t been for Jess we could have done nothing,” put in Jerry. “They had us locked up.”
“Let’s have the whole yarn,” suggested Sam.
Ned related what he had heard of the plot that night he had hidden in the Dartaway, and told how he and the boys on reaching the lighthouse had been left in charge with the new assistant while Mr. Hardack went to see his sick sister.