"There don’t seem to be any let-up in sight," he told Lorna, "and I feel like I’d ought to be right on the job, as the feller said." She cleared away and washed the dishes. All the time the booming of the breakers and the crash of the wind against the trembling light tower made unhappy music in her ears. She went to the door to look out. The sand barrens were being most viciously beaten by both wind and spray. She dreaded the walk back to Clay Head. When she went she thought she would better follow the shell road even if it was much the longer way home. Not a moving object appeared in the near-by landscape. Suppose Ralph had boarded the fishing schooner? It was now probably far out to sea. Any craft must make a good offing in such a hurricane to be safe. Ralph’s possible peril kept recurring to the girl’s anxious mind. The accusation that he had helped in the bank burglary might, in the end, prove ridiculous. But his peril from the elements could not be gainsaid. Yes, she was angry with Ralph. He had shown, she thought, little appreciation of her personal attractions that day when they returned in his motor boat from Lower Trillion after the black squall. Lorna had been in a tender mood that afternoon and Ralph—he had practically ignored her! That she had forbidden him to display any lover-like attitude toward her did not enter into Lorna’s consideration. There are times when even the most practical young woman does not expect a man to believe she means what she says. In addition, the spectre of Cora Devine continually rose in Lorna’s thoughts. There was a mystery between Ralph and that girl. It had to be explained before Lorna could readmit her old friend to her confidence. When Lorna climbed the stairs once more to the lamp room it was mid-afternoon, and she realized that darkness would shut down very early upon sea and land. Already Miss Heppy’s chickens had gone to roost. Lorna had beaten her way out to the coop to feed them and found them cowering upon their perches. There was the element of threatening disaster in the very air. As she came up into the lamp room the turmoil of the gale seemed to have increased tenfold. One could not have stood in safety upon the narrow gallery outside the windows. Tobias had his old-fashioned "captain’s glass" to his eye—an ancient telescope that had been round the world on many a voyage—and held it focused on a point some miles to the southward. "What is it, Tobias?" Lorna asked, coming close to him before he realized her presence. "I give it as my opinion that it is a craft of some kind, and she’s making heavy weather of it. But I can’t make out if it’s a two-stick or a three-stick vessel. Seems to have lost some of her gear for’ard." He allowed Lorna to take the heavy glass and aided her to fix upon the exact spot where, now and then, the masts of the laboring vessel heaved into view. "Is she in danger, do you think, Tobias?" Lorna asked.