"There seems to be work here for me," said Dr. King, who had been looking about with a professional eye. "You can tell us about it afterward, boys; just now we must attend to these men."
The two keepers were soon laid out on comfortable beds, and under Dr. King's treatment it was not long before the assistant began to show signs of consciousness.
"He has been stunned by a blow on the head," the doctor said, "and we will soon bring him around." But with Mr. Pinder, the principal keeper, it was different. "Bad fracture of the right leg," he announced, after a hasty examination; "some bruises on the back and side, and cuts on the forehead. I think that after receiving the injury to his leg he tried to drag himself up the stairs to light the lantern, but his strength failed, and he fell back, and so received these other injuries."
By the time that Mr. Pinder was made comfortable, the assistant was able to tell what had happened. With the first moment of consciousness he sprang up, and exclaimed:
"The lamp! the lamp! Is the light burning?"
Being assured that all was well with the light, he rested his head on his hands for a moment, and began:
"You see, there are three keepers here, and two required to be always on duty. This morning the second assistant went off to Key West in the schooner, with his wife and Mr. Pinder's wife. That left me and Mr. Pinder here alone. Well, sir, early this evening, about ten or fifteen minutes before it was time to light the lamp, there came a big squall of wind, and picked up a bamboo rocking-chair we had out on the deck, and carried it right over the rail.
"'You lower the boat an' get that chair,' says Mr. Pinder to me; 'we may as well save the chair.'"
"Well, sir, I lowered the boat, and soon got the chair, but I saw it was going to be tight work getting back to the ladder in that sea and wind. Mr. Pinder he saw it too, and he run down to help me; and as I came in a big roller came just at the wrong minute, and bang went my head against one of the iron beams, as near as I can tell. That was the last I knew; but the roller must have caught Mr. Pinder's leg between the boat and the ladder and crushed it. Then, after draggin' me up on the platform, the poor man's tried to crawl up to light the lamp, and he's fell back and cut himself, just as you say."
"I don't know what I can say to these brave lads who came out and lit the lamp for us," the man went on. "I'd rather been killed outright than had that light fail."