"What's the matter with the inspector's telegraphin' to Sonny's father?" Mr. Peters asked suddenly, and the keeper started in surprise as this possibility was suggested. "Now you can see how thick-headed I am!" he exclaimed. "Here is Sammy, who couldn't be expected to look ahead so far as that, comes up with the very idee. Of course the inspector will telegraph, 'cause I don't s'pose it would cost him anythin', an' the chances are your father'll know the whole story inside of the next eight an' forty hours." "I hope that may be so," Sidney said half to himself, and Captain Eph cried jealously: "Are you so anxious as all that to get away from us, Sonny?" "Indeed I'd be only too glad if I could stay at the light all winter," Sidney said earnestly; "but I can't bear to think that father is feeling very, very bad believing I may be drowned." "Of course you'd look at it in that light, Sonny, an' it shows your heart is in the right place. I am an old fool for sayin' anything; but the trouble is I've been gettin' it inter my head that you wouldn't go away very soon." "How can he?" Mr. Peters asked as he gave way to one of those alarming gurgles he sometimes indulged in. "S'posen he knew this very minute where Sonny was, how's he goin' to get at him till his schooner goes to Porto Rico, unloads, takes on another cargo, an' comes back? I don't reckon that voyage can be made in any two or three days!" "Sammy, you do say the brightest things now an' then, for a man who hasn't got a very big head, that I ever heard of," Captain Eph cried as if a great load had been taken from his mind. "That's the second time you've made me feel mighty good by jumpin' inter the conversation when I didn't s'pose you'd know what to say!" CHAPTER VII. A LESSON ON BUOYS. Before Mr. Peters could make any reply to the rather equivocal remark of the keeper, Sidney, glancing over his shoulder carelessly, was startled into a cry of surprise, for they were close aboard the ledge, and, as if waiting for them, Uncle Zenas stood at the head of the little cove. "What's the matter, Sonny?" Captain Eph asked solicitously. "Nothing serious, sir. I was surprised at seeing that we were so near the light. The boat has made better time than when we went over, and yet I didn't know I was running the motor any faster." "Very likely you kept the same pace with the machine; but this 'ere wind has been pushin' us along a good two miles an hour," the keeper replied as he waved his hand in greeting to Uncle Zenas. "Ahoy on the boat!" the cook shouted as if he was hailing a ship half a mile distant, and Mr. Peters took it upon himself to reply: "Hello! What seems to be creepin' over you?" "Did I put bakin' powder on that 'ere list?" "That you did, an' the cap'n has brought what'll last six months, even if you sit up nights tryin' to work it inter somethin' that we're bound to eat 'cause we can't get anything else."