The boys looked at each other. They all had the same thought,—of the man in the railroad wreck.
“He was a miner out west,” Mr. Hardack went on. “He went there several years ago and left his daughter with me, because it was a wild country he was in. I got word a few months ago that he had started east, having made quite some money. He was to come here but he never arrived. We’ve been waiting for him since, and Jess is quite worried. I wrote to the persons who used to know him, but they said he had left the mining camp, and they did not know where he was. I wish I could locate him.”
Ned felt a lump coming up in his throat. The other lads seemed strangely affected. It was Jerry who spoke first.
“Mr. Hardack,” he said. “I don’t want to raise any false hopes, but I think we can put you on the track of Jessica’s father.”
“Where is he? Tell me! Oh, I must go to him if he is in trouble!”
“If he is the man I think him to be, he is in the hospital at Cresville. We saved a man from a railroad wreck, who, in his delirium, murmured something about ‘Jess’ and the ‘great light.’ I think he must have meant your niece, and the ‘great light’ referred to the lighthouse.”
“Oh, I only hope so!” exclaimed Mr. Hardack. “The loss of her father has almost broken Jessica’s heart. She is in mourning for her dead mother. How can we find out if the man of the wreck is my brother?”
“I can telephone to Dr. Bounce,” replied Jerry. “The man may have recovered by now.”
It took some time to get the long-distance connection on the telephone from the lighthouse to Dr. Bounce. While it was being made Jess came into the room.
“Jess—dear—Jessica,” stammered her uncle. “Would you mind getting dinner?” She left the room, a little surprised at the serious looks on the faces of the boys and her uncle. “I didn’t want her to hear until we know if it’s true,” said the uncle in a whisper.