“Now look here, Benny,” and Sam Hardy, reaching over, took the boy by the hand. “There’s no question about our wantin’ you to stay here, for we’ve come to look on you as belongin’ to us, an’ I’ll venture to say I’m speakin’ now what’s in the heart of every man here. We like you because you’re a sensible mate, an industrious lad, an’ one’s who’s doin’ his level best to get into a hard callin’. If we thought only of ourselves that letter would go into the fire before you could say ‘Jack Robinson.’ It’s your future that must be considered. By stayin’ here you’ll never be more ’n a surfman, an’ a lad of your age should aim higher than that, whether he reaches the mark set or not. I ain’t lookin’ down upon the business I’ve followed all my life, an’ I’ll always uphold that it’s an honor to any man to be a member of a life-saving crew; but at the same time I know, an’ you know, that it’s possible for a lad to go a good bit higher. What’s decided on now affects your whole life, an’ settles whether you’re to stay in the life-saving service, or, perhaps, be a shinin’ light in the world. I vote that all hands of us study over this thing till to-morrow after breakfast, and then let each one, includin’ Benny, give the result of his figgerin.’” “That’s the proper way,” Tom Downey said quickly, catching eagerly at the suggestion. “You’ll remember all Sam Hardy has said, Benny, for it’s true, so far as regards yourself an’ us. We want you with us; but I hope there’s nobody in this crew who would be willing to keep you at the expense of your future. Think it all over calmly and quietly, lad, as Sam proposes, an’ you can count on this crew doin’ their level best for whatever may be to your future good.” CHAPTER XVIII. A CONSULTATION. Benny was in a state of mind bordering on despair when the crew postponed any decided action on the letter from this uncle of whom he had never heard before. For the moment it seemed as if almost any decision would have been better than the suspense. It appeared as if his comrades avoided even so much as looking toward him, and this gave him a sense of loneliness such as had come into his heart when he found himself amid strangers, the only survivor of the _Amazonia_. As a matter of fact there was not a member of the crew but that would have enjoyed taking the lad in his arms and declaring that he should never leave the station, no matter how many uncles might send for him; but every man understood the question was too important to be decided hastily, and also that it would be cruel, perhaps, to speak such words as might influence the boy. Benny waited a moment or more, hoping Sam Hardy might give him some consolation; but as the surfman remained silent with averted face, the sore-hearted lad, gathering Fluff in his arms, went out upon the wind-swept rocks to struggle as best he might with the great grief which had so suddenly come upon him.