"She’s off the rocks now. No two ways about it. What do you say, Rafe?" "_Santa Maria!_" exploded the mahogany-faced man with a final shrug. "She is loss! No help—no!" Tobias looked quickly at Lorna. The girl could have become no whiter in any case. But her eyes flamed. The lightkeeper was not astonished to hear her say with conviction: "I do not believe it! There must be something we can do to aid them. Think, Tobias Bassett! Think!" "I give it as my opinion, Lorna," he drawled, "that this here so-called absent treatment ain’t going to do that schooner or them that’s aboard of her much good. We’ve got to do something more’n thinking." CHAPTER XXVIII DESPERATION The trio went down from the lamp room again and joined the detective in the kitchen. That individual evidently thought much more about his own comfort than he did of the peril of the storm-racked schooner and her crew. Lorna wept no more; but the inaction rasped her nerves. Tobias’s deep reflection made him look preternaturally solemn—an owl-like gravity that at another time would have amused her. Rafe Silver muttered in his own tongue and nursed his injured hand. His bead-black eyes continually shifted from one to another of the group. Tobias filled his pipe from the pouch on the mantel and then passed the tobacco to Silver. The latter produced a brown paper and dexterously rolled himself a cigarette with his uninjured hand. The other man brought out a cigar, and all three proceeded to smoke. Tobacco is said to soothe the nerves. It did not soothe Lorna’s. Finally the lightkeeper spoke: "I give it as my opinion that there ain’t nothing we can do just now. There!" he added, leaning forward to gaze through the single window that gave a view of the sea. "There goes another rocket. The _Nelly G._ is gettin’ closer. If Bob Pritchett can claw her around the end of the Twin Rocks, he’ll mebbe make safe harbor in the bay. But if she goes slam on the reefs—— "Wal, no use meeting trouble more than half way. If she does hit, she does, and that’s all there is to it. And if she does, the only way to reach and help ’em is with the power lifeboat from Upper Trillion." "The breeches-buoy, Tobias?" cried Lorna. "No, no, I tell ye, Lorna. Not a chance. Unless the _Nelly G._ comes inshore on the next full sea. And she ain’t going to last that long. Either she’ll be on the rocks or safe in the harbor long before another tide. At full sea she might be carried over the outer reefs and lay so that a line could be shot over her. Otherwise the power boat is the only hope. That is sure." "Oh, Tobias, they must see those rockets at Upper Trillion!"