"And where are the men?"
"Oh, father took them across in his boat after they had done all they could to save things. I tell you, they were awful plucky about getting things out. Father says he wouldn't have risked his bones on the old hull for nobody."
"No, I don't believe he would, boy," said Walter dryly, recalling the slowness with which he responded to their petitions for help when he and Ned were in trouble. "Your father will never come to his death through want of care for himself, rest sure of that, Johnny; so don't you lie awake at night worrying about him."
The path to the lighthouse lay through that part of the pasture where the blueberries were most plentiful and tempting, so it was long before the boys reached their destination; and their blue mouths told the secret of their delay.
After the lighthouse had been visited and examined, the boys led the way to the fishing-ground, where the tide had come up over their fish and lunches and rods. Here all began to talk together, relating the experience of that eventful day, and though they all spoke one language, it seemed like a second Babel, but little inferior in point of sound to the first. Each boy having had an experience that differed a little from his neighbour's, felt it necessary to make a statement of facts. After a while Joe shouted above the din,--
"See here, boys, it is low tide; let's go around and see the 'Exiles' Rock!'" and he led the way down to the spur around which Walter and Ned had run to hide.
"Look out there! you fellows will be caught just as we were," shouted Walter.
"No, we won't. We know too much for that," answered Dave.
"Come on and visit the scene of your fame and glory, Walt!" exclaimed Ned.
"No, sir; the fame and glory were too slim to tempt me again," was the laughing reply, as Walter threw himself down on the rocks to wait for the others.