Meanwhile, on the little island, Captain Green had been anxiously awaiting the approach of low tide, that he might make the venture to reach the mainland. He was full of solicitude regarding the whereabouts of Frank and wished to give the alarm as soon as possible.
There was a brass cannon on the island, used chiefly to acquaint Long Island Sound with the presence of the Fourth of July on the land.
Giving directions that this cannon be fired should news of Frank be received, Captain Green started, in company with one of the workmen of the mill, for the Connecticut shore. They were aided by the light of a lantern and their guide was a compass.
During this time Mrs. Dobson, unwilling to be left alone in the mysterious fog even for a minute, held Josh by the collar and slowly felt her way along the Lane fence to the beach, wishing with all her heart, as she went, “that the Lord had not made boys and men so venturesome. Poor, dear lad!” she thought, as she stumbled along from post to post. “He never will get there! He’ll be lost on the awful sands! the cruel, creeping tide will draw him down. O, Harry, Harry!” and then she was crying out to him in the thick darkness, for at last she was come to the brink of the bank leading down to the sea-sands.
At her cry of “Harry! Harry!” Josh made one bounding leap for freedom, which he gained with a glad bark and was off, leaving Mrs. Dobson alone. Into the mist leaped Josh, easily following Harry, until he lost scent at the water’s edge. Then he stopped and uttered a few barks, just enough to reach the hearing of Harry and to gladden his heart more than I can tell.
Harry whistled, and in plunged the dog, getting to his friend in a marvelously short time and uttering his thankfulness at having found him by a perfect jubilation of sound, that made the old fog-banks, landward and seaward, echo and reecho his joy.
Captain Green and his companion had come to the land-end of the bar, where they also heard the bark.
“Sure’s I live,” said the mill-man, “that was Josh Dobson’s bark! I wonder what in the world he’s out on the coast for this night.”
“Somebody’s out there, lost, trying to cross, you may be sure,” replied Captain Green, and he sent a cheery call as far into the night as his voice would carry it, and all the time he was keeping close to the sea’s edge, by the dim, misty light of his lantern, anxious not to lose the water-line for an instant.
They shouted singly as they went, and they shouted together, and at length Harry, floundering still under Josh’s guidance, heard the call and responded. With the regularity of a fog-bell’s toll came the call and answer, until at last Harry caught the lantern’s glimmering light, and shortly after saw two forms, like giants, stretching out of the misty darkness.