“Is there anything you’d rather have us do?” asked Hugh, beginning to understand a kindly hint in Jim Downs’s words. “We’d like to be of real service, if we can.”
“Sure you can! Seeing as the weather’s so thick, suppose you lads race back to the station and report what we’ve seen. Then, if the cap’n sends Larry out to join me, you can come back with him. See?”
“All right,” they responded.
Again they climbed into the dory and rowed back to Red Key. Jim waited to light another torch, and the boys sped up to the boathouse, where they informed the keeper, who already knew of the ship, of what they had seen.
* * * * * * * *
Meanwhile Baley, with Alec and Chester, had walked the opposite beat. From the first, however, they felt sure that the distant object against the murky horizon was a vessel. With lighted Coston signal in hand, Baley pursued his difficult way along the shore, buffeted by the wind and drenched with flying spray. He explained to the boys how the outer line of sandbars, which in summer breaks the blue ocean into sunny ripples and flashing white caps, has power to churn the spring tides into fury and to grip with a mighty hold the keel of any vessel that is unlucky enough to be driven on it.
As they trudged doggedly on, the wind whipped through the beach grasses on the dunes and spitefully swirled handfuls of cutting sand into their faces. Fortunately, the night was not cold, else they might have fared worse. As it was, the two scouts rather enjoyed the novel experience. They felt that they were, for the time being, a part of Uncle Sam’s coast guard,—members of a crew of brave men whose vigilance and strength and presence of mind save hundreds of lives and valuable property every year.
They told Baley how they had learned to become efficient signalers, and he heartily approved of that branch of their training. Knowing a lot about the Boy Scout organization,—for his son was then a tenderfoot in a Florida troop,—he was not surprised at the amount of general “prepared-ness” which Alec and Chester modestly displayed.
“You never can tell, my lads, just when and where and how you’ll need to use what you’ve learned,” he said pleasantly. “For instance: Suppose we had to signal that ship out there to-morrow morning, or even to-night, if she gets into trouble? Could you do it?”
“Reckon we could, Mr. Baley,” replied Chester quietly.