"That must be a new boat you've got?" the postmaster continued in a questioning tone. "Does the Government furnish motor boats nowadays?"
"This 'ere ain't a Government craft," Captain Eph said curtly, and then he asked Mr. Peters, "Ain't you ready yet, Sammy?"
"Everything is stowed, an' what ain't I can look after while we're runnin'."
The keeper cast off the hawser, and took his seat in the stern-sheets, while the postmaster walked slowly along the dock as the boat swung out with the current, when he said inquiringly:
"Then there ain't nothin' gone wrong at the ledge? An' I reckon you've taken the boy on to kind'er help you out in the work, eh?"
"Carys' Ledge lays jest where it did when I first took charge of the light, an' if anything had gone wrong you wouldn't see us here, 'cause we'd be there tryin' to put it to rights," Captain Eph said more sharply than before, and he nodded to Sidney as if ordering him to start the engine.
The lad believed he understood the mute command, and an instant later the little craft was moving swiftly away, but not at such a pace as to prevent them from hearing the postmaster cry:
"If anything has gone wrong, an' I can do you a good turn, let me know, for I'm only too glad to oblige my neighbors."
Captain Eph shut his mouth tightly as if to keep back angry words, and when the little craft was a mile or more from the wharf, he said to Mr. Peters:
"I hope, Sammy, you'll let this be a lesson to you. Now you can get an idee of how it sounds when a man tries to pry into other folks' affairs."