"Right yer are, boy, but the government is a slow movin' vessel and hard ter get under way."
The boys had to laugh at this odd way of expressing the difficulty of getting new lights erected, but they knew as well almost as their companion the dangers of the ocean off this part of Long Island.
The whistle boomed out its wailing note again.
"Closer and closer," lamented the captain, "what's the matter with those lubbers? Yer'd think they'd have a leadsman out."
All at once the catastrophe for which they had been more or less prepared happened. So quickly did it come that they had not time to speak.
The echoes of the last note of the siren had hardly died out when there came a loud explosion.
"Bang!"
"A signal gun," roared the captain.
"They are calling for help?" asked Rob.
"That's it, my boy. They've struck, just as I thought they would."