Uncle Barney had done a good deal of thinking since he had returned to his cabin in the sand dunes. He was recalling a visit he had received from Captain Ezra Bassett a short time before he set sail for Ireland. It was then that Muriel’s grand-dad had told him all that he knew of the girl’s own father, and at the end of the story he had said: “If anything happens to me, Barney, like as not Rilla’s own dad would be the right one for her to go to. You can allays reach him by writin’ to the address that’s in the little iron box whar the tools ’r’ kept for fixin’ the light.”
How well Barney remembered that little iron box. It had been on many a sea voyage when Ezra had been in command of the two-masted schooner The Stormy Petrel, and the faithful Irishman had been first mate.
Then, when the older man had settled on Windy Island, Barney had often seen the box in the small closet at the top of the tower where the oil can, tools and cleaning rags were kept.
What ought he to do about it? he ruminated as he sat near his glowing stove on the day following Muriel’s visit and smoked pipe after pipe in thoughtful silence.
Ought he to tell the girl, and yet, now that the tower was but a fallen heap of stones, would it be possible for them to find the little iron box?
“It’s colleen herself as shall do the decidin’,” he at last determined. Rising, he put on his heavy coat, cap and the scarlet muffler that Molly had knitted for him and telling his good wife that he might not be back until late, he started walking toward the home of Doctor Winslow.
Muriel was out on the veranda sweeping away the light snow that had fallen in the night. “Top o’ the morning to you, Uncle Barney,” she called as she waved the broom. “Have you come to invite me to take a cruise with you?”
The old man smiled up at her as he ascended the steps, and yet, so well did the girl know him, that she at once sensed that something was troubling him. However, it was in his usual cheerful manner that he replied:
“It’s a mind reader that you are, Rilly gal, for ’twas that very thing I was after thinkin’. I cal’lated I’d cruise over to Windy Island, this mornin’ and I was hopin’ as how you’d like to go along as crew.”
There were sudden tears in the hazel eyes of the girl as she held the old man’s warmly mittened hand in a firm clasp.