“Building an earthen tank for oil,” replied the mate. “They will lay planks to form the circular wall and back that up with the earth in the mound. The roof will be of boards. The tank will hold several hundred gallons and will be pretty much under ground. It’s a cheap way to build a reservoir and it makes a pretty safe receptacle. Now we’ll go look at that bit of woods I mentioned.”
They left the oil field and walked toward a woodland that was visible at some distance. It proved to be extensive and lay along a little stream of water. Roy was instantly attracted by the wonderful growths of pirate’s beard. It was everywhere. In great festoons it hung from the trees, giving the woods a misty, hazy look. Roy got hold of some and examined it. The moss was like coarse, gray-green fibres more or less loosely grown together. It reminded him of an old man’s beard and he thought it was well named.
He admired the live-oaks with their picturesque growth and beautiful leaves, so green and glossy. Here and there great bunches of mistletoe with its yellow-green stems and leaves caught his eye. But what pleased Roy most were the beautiful holly-trees. There were none in his part of the country, but he had seen holly branches in the stores at Christmas time and he instantly knew what they were. There were no red berries on the trees at this season, but they were beautiful even without the berries, with their smooth, gray trunks that reminded Roy of the beeches in his own neighborhood, and the glossy, dark green leaves, with their prickly edges. There were many other strange and interesting growths, and Roy went back to the train feeling that he had been richly repaid for his journey.
The return trip was made without incident and in due time Roy and his friend found themselves back on the Lycoming. Captain Lansford nodded to them as they came aboard and inquired pleasantly if Roy had enjoyed the trip. Roy answered briefly, then went to the wireless house. His heart was beating high. The captain had never said one word to him concerning the fog and the part Roy had played in helping to prevent a collision, but ever since that event he had seemed different to Roy. His greeting now made Roy feel that perhaps at last he was making some headway in his struggle to win the captain’s good-will. At any rate, he felt sure that the captain no longer disliked him.
CHAPTER XV
SOS
But Roy was soon to find that the captain’s favor, like success, could be gained by no royal road. It was true that the captain’s feeling toward Roy was perhaps altered somewhat, but not nearly so much as Roy either hoped or at first believed. The captain treated him less coldly than before, but there was nothing like cordiality in his manner toward Roy. Distinctly the captain’s attitude was like that of the man from Missouri. He still wanted to be shown.
It was a long time before Roy grasped the idea that the captain was still skeptical concerning the desirability of wireless. But as time and distance from the Merrimack incident gave him a saner view of the affair, he came to understand the captain’s point of view. That was that though Roy had possibly been helpful in averting a collision, it did not by any means follow that if Roy had not been aboard a collision would have occurred. The men on the bridge plainly heard the Merrimack’s whistle. They knew she was near and coming closer. They were straining every nerve and sense to prevent an accident. All that Roy had told them that they did not already know was the fact that the Merrimack was within two thousand feet. And they might have guessed even that. When Roy, after much deliberation, had reasoned this out for himself, he saw his own part in a new light. It seemed to him now very commonplace and inconsequential. Perhaps he now erred as much in this new opinion as previously he had erred in overestimating his accomplishment.
But at any rate his new point of view helped him. More and more, as he saw new crises arising, now over delays in loading, now over breaks in machinery or equipment, now through storms or other superhuman causes, and saw the captain rise superior to one after another of these obstacles, he got his true bearings. He understood what a really insignificant place he occupied. For thirty years the captain had wrestled, and wrestled triumphantly, with every form of obstacle known to the mariner, while he, Roy, had sailed the seas hardly more than thirty days and knew nothing of the thousand difficulties of navigation.