"Oh, sugar! What can we do," muttered the lightkeeper, "if them life-savers can't get out to the schooner?—and of course, they can't. What did Cap Edgar say, Rafe?"
The Portuguese shook his head till the rings in his ears twinkled in the lamplight, and raised his shoulders in a truly Latin shrug.
"What can heem do?" Silver sighed. "He has only ol' boat down theer. The men, heem weeling. But no can row against thees wind."
"That's just it," groaned Tobias.
"Then why don't they get the gear out and shoot a line to the schooner?" demanded Lorna. "Can't they use the breeches-buoy?"
"Why, my dear," said the lightkeeper gravely, "if you just stop and think you'll see that if the wind is too strong for the boat, it's too strong to shoot a line. Couldn't noways reach out there, with even a double charge of powder in the gun—nossir!"
The girl clapped her hands together in despair. "There must be something that can be done," she said. "Are we all helpless?"
"Wal—I dunno——"
"Think, Tobias! There must be some way to reach them. Think of Ralph out there."
"Oh, sugar, gal! don't you s'pose I be thinking of him? I ain't doin' much of anything else."