During five minutes or more the keeper and his assistant worked industriously at those tasks which should have been performed earlier in the day, and then Mr. Peters asked:
"How long do you allow that little chap will sleep, Cap'n Eph?" and the keeper replied:
"It wouldn't surprise me a bit if he run his nap way over till to-morrow mornin'. You see it ain't likely he got much sleep while he was alone in the boat."
"An' it stands to reason that he didn't have a great deal to eat, for I couldn't see anything on the craft that looked like provisions."
"I reckon there's no question but that he went hungry, Sammy."
"In which case he's needin' food as much as sleep," Mr. Peters said thoughtfully, "an' I'm askin' if it ain't our duty to rouse him up after a while, so's to shove somethin' inter his stomach."
"Well I declare, Sammy!" Captain Eph cried emphatically. "I never once took heed to anythin' of that kind, an' yet it's only common sense. I'll run down an' see what Uncle Zenas can fix up that'll hit his case."
"You look after the boy, an' I'll 'tend to things in the lantern," Mr. Peters said as he wiped here and there with the buff-skin over imaginary specks of dust on the lens.
"That 'ere Sammy breaks out in spots of good, sound sense every once in a while," Uncle Zenas said when the keeper repeated to him the conversation which had been held in the lantern. "It stands to reason the little shaver needs somethin' in his stomach, an' I'll fix up a mess right away. Perhaps we might pour a little broth down his throat without disturbin' him very much."
"All right; see what you can do, an' I'll take a squint at his boat. It ain't certain but that she can be patched up, an' he may need her powerful bad before the inspector comes this way."