"'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." "We have something to say about that," Mr. Jenner interrupted. "We were bound for Indian Key, in the schooner _Pelican_, and when we found there was no light we determined to stand out into deep water till daylight. But we must have lost our bearings, for when the first flash of the light came, we saw that we were heading in shore. In two minutes more we should have been on the reefs." "Yes, that light saved our lives by just about two minutes," said Dr. King. "So we ran down here to see what was the matter. When is your mate coming back from Key West?" he asked the keeper. "In two or three days," the man answered. "Then the boys shall stay and assist you till he comes," the doctor went on, "for Mr. Pinder will be unfit for duty for a month or more. The government will not pay you for that, boys," he added, laying a hand on each boy's head, "but Jenner and I will. When you get home you can pick out the best boat in the harbor; and you shall call her the _Alligator Light_, in memory of this night's good work." FOR KING OR COUNTRY. A Story of the Revolution. BY JAMES BARNES. CHAPTER III. ON TUMBLE RIDGE. Although Uncle Nathan was eager to arm his own people and seek a meeting with the "miscreants," who, he declared, were endeavoring to ruin him, Mr. Wyeth's cool counsels and Uncle Daniel's restraining voice prevailed, and nothing had been done. But Nathaniel Frothingham refused to go to bed, and paced the floor all night. At daybreak he and his brother, with Cloud, the overseer, and Mr. Wyeth, made their way up on the ridge. At first nothing appeared amiss, but when they had gone a short way into the shaft they came upon a scene of havoc. The Hewes' Mine and the Frothinghams' had been joined into one big excavation that was filled with the débris of the timbers and great masses of ore. It was true! For some months the Frothinghams had been working upon the other's property. They had been separated only by a thin wall of rock, and it was this intervening partition that had been blown up in the night.