That was comforting philosophy for two hungry fishermen, and the boys ate while the storm raged, and made up for much lost time. They could not look out, because there is no glass in the windows of the Keys, only board shutters, and Cudjoe had shut the shutters.
Rex was the first to find that he positively could eat no more, and leaving Nick still seated at the table, he pushed back his chair and went out to the piazza to look at the weather. An instant later the cry rang through the house:
"Nick! Nick!"
It was such a cry of alarm that Nick immediately sprang up and ran out to see. Everything outside was pitch dark, and Rex, in all the wind and rain, was holding to one of the piazza pillars.
"I must be blind, Nick!" Rex shouted. "Look! Where's the light-house?"
"The light-house?" Nick answered, wonderingly, and looked out seaward. But he saw no light. "Why—why, there is no light! No light in all this darkness! What can it mean?"
Instead of answering, Rex dashed into the house and returned in a few seconds with Cudjoe.
"Look at that, Cudjoe!" he shouted; "there is no light!"
At first Cudjoe would not believe it. He ran to one end of the piazza and then to the other, looking in all directions for a light.
"Well I 'clar' to goodness!" he exclaimed, and his face was as ashy as such a black face could become. "I 'ain't never seed dat light out afore, gemmen. Dey'll be wracks along dis coas' to-night, sho!"