Here he cared for the food, replenished the fire, swept the floor, and worked at whatsoever he could find for his hands to do until the room was seemingly as neat and tidy as ever it had been under Uncle Zenas' supervision.
It seemed to him that he must have been at work a full hour, and yet when he looked at the clock the hands were but ten minutes farther on their journey around the dial than when he began.
Again he went into the watch-room; but now it was impossible to see even the dory, and he felt more forsaken than before.
Uncle Zenas was too good a housekeeper to leave very much work undone at that time in the day, and, search as he might, Sidney could find nothing with which to keep his hands busy.
With such a weight of sorrow in his heart he could not read, and he went to and fro between the lantern and the kitchen, hardly conscious of what he did. Again and again he searched the surface of the heaving waters with the glasses, but without seeing the smallest object which his fancy could shape into a raft or a boat.
When the clock in the kitchen struck the hour of four, it was as if his heart ceased beating, for he understood that even if the dory should come in sight immediately, it would be impossible for the keepers to reach the ledge before sunset, and he felt positive they would never return. He would be the sole occupant of that lonely tower until the inspector found an opportunity of visiting Carys' Ledge.
The wind was increasing in force, as he could understand by the howling and shrieking around the lantern, while his eyes told him that the sea was running higher than at any time since the storm which had wrecked the Nautilus.
Suppose the keepers should return at the earliest possible moment—suppose the dory was even then headed toward the light? The men might not be able to make a landing on the ledge, and he could do absolutely nothing to aid them!
Five o'clock!
He went into the lantern ready to light the lamp at the exact moment of sunset. He was surrounded by the angry waters, which were creeping slowly but surely toward the tower, and there was nothing in sight to give him courage!