Uncle Zenas ground more coffee to add to that which was already on the stove, and then tried in vain to set about getting breakfast; but succeeded in doing nothing. It was a positive relief to Sidney when the keeper finally said: "It's gettin' well on to sunrise, an' I'll go inter the lantern. Of course there's no show of our bein' able to lend a hand out yonder; but yet it won't do any harm to be ready, so eat your breakfast as soon as it's cooked, Sammy." "What about yours?" "I don't want any." "Neither do I. Do you think a man could eat while that gun is bein' fired?" Captain Eph ascended the staircase slowly, and Sidney asked timidly if he might be allowed to go with him. "Of course you may, Sonny. There's never any need of askin' to go with me, my boy, for I'd like to have you by my side every minute of the day or night." Not until the two were in the lantern did Sidney speak, and then it was to cry, as he burst into tears: "Oh, Captain Eph, wouldn't it be dreadful if the wreck was the _West Wind_, having come out here after me?" "Bless your heart, Sonny, it couldn't be her no-how, for she's way down by Porto Rico by this time." "But father might have heard where I was, and come back after me!" "Now don't get any sich idees into your head as that, for your father don't even dream where you are, more's the pity. Why my report hasn't yet reached the inspector, consequently there ain't a single soul, outside of us four, who knows anything about the wreck of the _West Wind_, because he hasn't come out here about it. Did the _West Wind_ have a gun aboard?" "No, sir." "Then that part of it is settled. The craft that's taken the ledge yonder is a heavier vessel than your father's, so you can count him right out of your mind, so far as this wreck is concerned." CHAPTER IX. THE WRECK. It was not surprising that Sidney should have feared the appeals for help came from the crew of the _West Wind_, for even Captain Eph had questioned in his own mind whether such might not be the case. If Captain Harlow had cruised around in the hope of picking up the motor boat, he was quite as likely to be in the vicinity of Carys' Ledge, as else-where, and not until Sidney had assured him that there was no gun on board the _West Wind_, did Captain Eph entirely dismissed the matter from his mind. As a matter of fact, at that very moment Mr. Peters and Uncle Zenas were discussing such a possibility, the cook insisting that it was only reasonable to suppose Captain Harlow would stand off and on in the vicinity of where Sidney's boat had last been seen, until there was no longer any chance the lad could be afloat. "Of course Sonny's father would know how much gosolene there was in the boat's tank," Mr. Peters finally said, hoping to convince himself that the appeals for aid had not come from the _West Wind_, "an' he'd understood that the craft, if she was kept at sea, would be swamped mighty soon after the power gave out."