“The lad is makin’ ready to give us the slip if it turns out that the crew believe he should leave,” the “captain of the kitchen” said to Tom Downey. “From what I’ve seen of him there’s no doubt in my mind but that he’ll do it rather than go to this uncle of whom he never heard before.” Because of the fear that Benny might be tempted to do something desperate in case the information Mr. Bradford received was of such a nature as warranted a careful consideration of Andrew Foster’s claim, it was decided that the lad be kept in ignorance regarding what the gentleman might succeed in learning until the crew could weigh the matter well in joint discussion. It so chanced, however, that Benny himself was the first to hear from Mr. Bradford, and the crew were thwarted in their good intentions by that piece of mechanism known as the telephone. The boy was alone in the station on the fifth day after Andrew Foster’s letter was received, and, hearing the bell ring, answered the call. “Hello!” he cried, replying as he had often heard Mr. Downey, and then, placing the receiver to his ear, he awaited the message. “Is this the Life-Saving Station?” “Yes, sir.” “Who’s at the ’phone?” “It’s me--Benny Foster.” “Hello, Benny, how is young Foster? It is Bradford who is speaking.” “Fluffy is very well, thank you. All the crew, and even the cook, are outside, sir. Shall I call any one?” “Perhaps it will be as well if I speak with you first, and then we’ll have a word with the keeper. Heard anything from your uncle?” “No, sir, and I hope I sha’n’t. Say, Mr. Bradford, would you go to him if you were in my place and had such a good home as this, where Fluffy can do almost whatever he wants to? You know some folks think a dog ain’t nice to come into the house, and I don’t know what the poor little man would do if he was sent into the shed or a barn to sleep.” “So you’re having it very comfortable out there, eh?” “Indeed we are, Mr. Bradford. Maje has got through bothering Fluff, and the men are as kind to me as if we was own folks. I’d feel awful bad to go away; but that’s what I’ll have to do if Andrew Foster says I must live with him.” “Ain’t thinking of running off are you, Benny?” “That’s just what Fluff and I have made up our minds to do, sir, though I wouldn’t like for you to tell Mr. Downey. We’ll never go off with folks we don’t know.” “Your uncle might give you a much better home than you have now, Benny.” “He couldn’t do it, sir. No one would ever be as good to me as are the members of this crew, and, what’s better than all the rest, I can earn my own way here--everybody says I do.” “Then you’ve quite made up your mind not to leave the station?” “Oh, sir; I’ll have to leave if the men decide that I must, but neither Fluff nor I will go to Andrew Foster.” “Then where do you count on going?” “That’s what we don’t know, sir. I was coming in first to ask you where we might find a place to work for enough to pay our way.”