"What is the matter?" Sidney asked in surprise, not understanding why the announcement that the tender was coming toward the ledge should have so startled the two men. "Matter, Sonny!" Captain Eph cried. "Why most likely the inspector is comin' on one of his reg'lar visits, an' what'll he say if he finds Uncle Zenas an' me off duty, so to speak?" "I don't see why you need bother about him," Sidney began; but before he could finish the statement, Mr. Peters cried: "Of course you don't, Sonny, 'cause you never was here when he overhauled everything on the ledge as if he expected we allers left 'em at sixes an' sevens." "But he won't see anything to-day," Sidney continued. "Didn't you say we were storm-bound? If other people can't make a landing here, isn't he in just as bad a fix?" Captain Eph leaned back in his chair and looked at the lad in astonishment, as he gasped: "Wa'al, who'd thought that little shaver had more sense than all the rest of us put together? Of course the inspector can't make a landin', an' I don't understand why he has come out here, for he must have known what the weather was!" "It's given me the worst scare I've had since I upset the kettle of lard!" Uncle Zenas exclaimed, leaning back on the bed as if after severe exertions. "She's comin' out here jest the same," Mr. Peters said as he stood by the window which opened toward the mainland, "an' what is it they want?" "You an' Sonny better show yourselves on the lantern gallery," Captain Eph suggested. "It won't take 'em long to find out that they can't step foot on Carys' Ledge this day; but it behooves us to make some signs of life." Mr. Peters and Sidney ran up-stairs to obey this command. The lad had never been on the narrow gallery which ran around on the outside of what is known as the lantern-deck, and he experienced a decided sense of insecurity as he stepped on the narrow platform through one of the swinging windows of the lantern. "You needn't walk so gingerly," Mr. Peters said with a laugh. "This 'ere would hold a hundred men as big as Uncle Zenas, an' I reckon your weight won't set it adrift. There's the steamer, an' it looks as if she was standin' on end 'bout half the time." The little craft was indeed laboring in the heavy seas. More than once Sidney fancied that the tops of the waves were flung completely over her smoke-stack, and when she sank into the trough of the sea, it was as if she were bent on going to the bottom. "I've yet got to guess why she's out here in this weather," Mr. Peters said half to himself, as he watched the steamer plunge and toss wildly when she was brought around parallel with the westerly side of the ledge. "They seem to know that there's no chance of makin' a landin,' an' it looks as if they wanted to speak to us." Then the first assistant waved his arms wildly, and shouted at the full strength of his lungs: "Ahoy! What's the matter?"