Saying so much exhausted the keeper, and his head sank back on his arm. To pacify him the boys started down after the other man, who was still lying precisely as they had left him. It was not an easy matter to carry him up the steep stairs, but they did it, and laid him out on the floor of the front room. "His heart is still beating," Rex said, after putting his hand under the man's vest. "He must have been stunned. I think we had better leave him here and look after Mr. Pinder." But Mr. Pinder had strong objections to being touched. "Oh, my leg!" he groaned, when they tried to raise him. Then, "Oh, my back! Let--me lie; please let me lie--where I am." Rex found a towel and water, and washed the blood from the injured man's face and bathed his temples; and while he was at this the boys were startled by a cry from below of "Hello here, in the light-house!" and the clattering of boots on the iron stairs; but before they could reply the door opened and their fathers stepped in. "Why, what are you boys doing here?" Mr. Jenner asked, in astonishment. "And what was the matter with the light?" "There has been some accident, sir," Nick replied, "but we don't know yet what. Rex and I came out and found both these men hurt, and we have just been up to light the lantern." "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.