“I want to see the light in the tower,” she had pleaded, adding softly: “Somehow I’m not quite so afraid for the ships out there when I see the light. Oh, listen to that wind!”
“I don’t see how we can very well help it,” said Vi, with a little shiver and cuddling up close to Billie on the window seat and slipping a hand into hers. “Oh—h!” and she clapped her hand to her ears as the wind rose to a wailing scream and the windows all over the house shook and rattled with the impact.
“I guess Uncle Tom was right,” said Connie, from somewhere out of the darkness. “Dad says, too, that this is the worst summer storm we have had around these parts for years. Oh, I do hope the boys are safe somewhere on shore.”
“I don’t think we need worry about them,” said Mr. Danvers. Or rather he started to say it, but at that moment the wind rose with insane fury, bringing the rain with it in driving torrents that beat swishingly upon the sand and drove viciously against the windows.
He waited for a moment until the wind died down. Then he began again.
“The storm was a long time in coming,” he said. “The boys had plenty of warning. Paul is very cautious, and I know he wouldn’t go on in the face of such danger. But,” and he turned toward the window again, “heaven help the ship that can’t make port to-night.”
“That’s almost exactly what Uncle Tom said,” remarked Connie, and then there was silence in the little room again while outside the storm raged and the light from the lighthouse tower sent its warning far out over the foam-crested waves.
The girls went to bed at last. Not because they expected to sleep, but because Connie’s mother insisted.
“Poor Uncle Tom!” murmured Billie to herself as, in her little white nightie, she stood at the window looking out toward the lighthouse tower. “All alone out there. What was it he said? 'You think of the men and the women and the little children out there on the sinking ships, and you curse the storm that’s bringing disaster along with it.' Poor, poor Uncle Tom! I wonder if he is thinking of—her.”
And with a sigh she turned from the window and crept into bed beside Connie.