"You didn't find anything, sir?" the lad asked timidly.
"No, Sonny, meanin' that Sammy wasn't there; but he's left signs enough to show he made into a raft sich timbers as he could get at, which gives us the biggest kind of a hope, for I'm allowin' he was on the raft when the dory went adrift."
"Would he be carried out to sea, sir?"
"This wind ought'er sent him toward the mainland, an' it's in that direction we must look for him."
It was quite natural Sidney should suppose Captain Eph would set off on the search without delay; but to his surprise the keeper ordered him to steer for the ledge, and at the same time keep a sharp lookout for anything in the shape of a raft.
"Why are we going back to the light, sir? Do you think he may have drifted in there?"
"Not a bit of it, Sonny. He must have pulled the raft clear of the wreck, an' then, when well off the shoal, stepped on it to make some of the timbers fast. In which case the wind would take him clear of Carys' Ledge."
"Then why don't we pull in the direction you think he may have gone?"
Instead of answering the question, Captain Eph asked abruptly: "Think you'd have any trouble in lightin' the lamp an' startin' the clock, Sonny?"
"I could do that much all right, I am positive."