CHAPTER V.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8351, 24 June 1905, Page 1

CHAPTER V.

THK HTTBRICANE. They descended into the • serviceroom "Let me see," said Enid: "It will bo nineteen years on the 22nd of next June since you found me floating serenely towards the Gulf Rock in a deserted boat?" "Yes, if you insist on acouracy, as to the date. I might cavil at your serenity." " And I was ' estimated ' as a year old then ? Isn't it a weird thing that a year-old baby should be sent adrift on the Atlantic in an open boat, Und never a word of inquiry made subsequently as to her fate? I fear I could not have been of much account in those days." " My dear child, I have always told you that the boat had been in collision during the fog which had prevailed for several days previously. Those who were caring for you were probably, knocked overboard and drowned." "But alone! .Utterly alone! That is the strangeness of it. I must be an American. Americans start out to hustle for themselves early in life, don't they?" . " Certainly in that respect you might claim the record. 1 ' Brand had not told her all the facts of that memorable June morning. Why should he? They were not pleasant memories to him. Why cumber her also with them? For the rest, he had drawn up and read to her long ago a carefully compiled account of Tier rescue, and the steps taken to discover her identity. ' "I entered on an active and. useful career with no such halo of glory," broke in Constance. "lam just plain English, born in, Brighton, of parents not poor, but Tespe<itaUe/ # Mother died a year after my birth, didn't 1 she, dad?" " You were thirteen months old when we lost her," he answered, bending over the clockwork attachment of the fog bell to wipe off an invisible spec of dust. Since his first term of service on the rock the light had changed from an occulting to a fixed one. " She is buried there, isn't she?" the girl ,went on. " How strange that, amidst our many journeyings, we have never visited Brighton 1" "If' l were able to take you to her) graveside I would not do it," said Brand. "I do not encourage morbid Bentiments evon of that perfectly natural kind. Your mother, to you, Constance, is like Enid's to" her, a dear but visionary legend. In a degree, it is always so between loved ones lost and those who are left. Truth, honour, work, thgse are the highest ideals for the individual. They satisfy increasingly. Happy as lam in your companionship, you must not be vexed when I tall you that the most truly joyful moment of my life was conferred when my little friend, here first responded accurately to external influences." He laid his hand on an object resting on a table by itself. It looked like an aneroid barometer, but the others knew it was the marine aurisoope to which he had devoted so many patient hours. ',' Is it in working order now?" asked Constance instantly, and Enid came nearer. Together they examined the small dial. It was equipped with an ar-row-headed pointer, and marked with the divisions of the compass, but without the distinguishing letters. These three understood each other exactly. By inadvertence the conversation had touched on a topio concerning which Brand was always either vague or silent. Both girls were quick-witted enough to know that Constance's mother was never willingly alluded to either by the lighthouse keeper or by elderly Mrs Sheppard who looked after them in infancy and was now the housekeeper of Laburnum Cottage. Constance was annoyed. How could she have been bo thoughtless as to cmlse her father a moment's suffering by bringing up painful reminiscences. But he helped her, being ; master °f himself. He adjusted a switch in the instrument. "I had no difficulty constructing a diaphragm which would intercept afl Bounds," he said. " The struggle came when I wanted an agent which would distinguish and render a particular set of sounds, no matter what additional din might be prevalent at the same time. My hopes were wrecked so often that I began to despair, until I chanced one day to read how. the' high-tension induction opil oould be tufnecTto disregard electrical influences other than those issued at the same pitch. My anxiety, until I had procured and experimented with a properly constructed coil, was very trying, I assure you." " I remember wondering what on earth it was," volunteered Enid. "It sounded like a mathematical snake." " And I am sorry to say that even yet I am profoundly ignorant as to its true inwardness,' smiled Constance. " Yet you girls delight in poets who j bid you hearken to the music of .the spheres. I suppose you will admit that the ear of, say, Ben Pollard, is not tuned to such a celestial harmony. However, I will explain my auriscope in a sentence. It only listens to and Indicates the direction of fog-horns, sirens, and ship's 'bells. A shrill steam whistle excites it,' but the breaking of seas aboard ship, the loud flapping of a propeller, the noise, of the engines, of a gale, or all these in combination, ■ leave ib unmoved." "I remember once, when we were going from Falmouth to PorthalJa in a fog, how dreadfully difficult it was to discover the wher.eaboutts of another steamer w« passed en route," said his daughter. ■ . ■/,.-. : . with this little clian em tW ■ .. .'■ ■■■ . .- * - •■ - -■ ■: ■ ■ . . i

bridge, the pointer would have told the captain unerringly. I don't suppose it will be thick whilst you are here, or you would* see it pick up the distant blasts of a steamer long before we can hear them, and follow her course right round tha arc of her passage. It is . most interesting to watch its activity when therfe are several ships using their sirens. I have never had an opportunity of testing it on more than three vessels at once, but as soon as I could deduce a regular sequence in the seemingly erratic movements of the indicator, I marked the approach and passing of each with the utmost ease." • "Would that stop collisions at sea," " Nothing will do that, because some ships' officers refuse, at times, to exercise due care. But, with my instrument on board two ships, and a time chart attached to the drums, there would be no need for a Board of Trade inquiry to determino whether or not the proper warnings were given. To v~e vast majority of navigators it will prove an absolute blessing." j "You clever old thing!" cried Enid. "I suppose you will make heaps of money out of it." < " The inventor is the last man to make money out of his invention as a rule," said Brand. " I suppose I differ from the ordinary poor fellow, inasmuch aa I am not dependent for a livelihood on the success of my discovery." " There/s not the least little bit of chance o(' there being a fog to-night?" queried Enid, so earnestly that a wave of merriment rippled through the room. " Not the least. In any event, you two girls will be in bed and sound asleep at ten o'clock." "Perish the thought!" cried Constance. "Bed, at tenj during our first and only night on a lighthouse!" "You will see," said her father. "You cannot imagine how the clook dawdles in this circumscribed area. Work alone conquers it. Otherwise, men would quit the service after a month's experience."- --" Ship ahoy 1" ( screamed Enid. " Here comes the Lapwing round Cam Du. Mr Lawton. must have lent her to bring relief. How kind of him." " The Lapwing cannot approach the rock," said Brand. "I will signal 'Landing impossible to-day.' It will save them a useless journey." Ho selected the requisite flags from a locker, the phrase he ; needed being coded. Soon the strong breeze was trying to tear the bunting from the cordage, and, though they could not hear the three whistles with which the little yacht acknowledged the signal, they could easily see the jets of steam through their glasses. Constance happened to overlook the table on which stood, the auriscope. "This thing has actually recorded those whistles," she cried in wonder. " What sort of whistle has the Lapwing P" asked Brand. • "A loud and deep one, worthy of a leviathan. It was a fad of Mr Lawton's. They say his siren consumes I more steam than his engines." ! Her father laughed. < "Anyhow, he is sticking to bis course," he announced. "I may as | well take in the decorations." I Undauntedly, but much flurried by a i s£& ever iv strength .jbb. the,, fbroe 'bffTihe 1 ebb tide encountered the resistance of the wind, the Lapwing held on. With wind and sea against her she would have made slow progress. As it was, there was help forthcoming for both journeys unless the wind went back to the north again as rapidly as it had veered to the south-west. She would not be abreast the rook for nearly an hour, so Brand left the girls in charge of the look-out whilst he visited the oil-room. A wild night, such as he anticipated, demanded full pressure at the lamp. If the air became super-saturated, breakage of the glass chimneys might take place, and he must have a good stock on hand. Water and coal, too, were needed; the double accident to Bates and Jackson had thrown into arrears all the ordinary duties of the afternoon watch. Naturally, the pair in the lantern found the progress of the yacht exa&peratingly slfcw. " A nice Lapwing," said Enid scornfully. "I will tell Mi Lawtpn he ought to re-christen her the BantamAll her power is in her crow." When Brand joined them matters became livelier. More accustomed than they to the use of a telescope, he made discoveries. " The two supernumeraries are there," he announced, "but I cannot see Lawton. Indeed, so far as I can make out, she is commanded by Stanhope, dressed in Ben Pollard's oilskins." * "He has left Lady Stanhope 1" cried Constance. "He never went home," essayed Enid. " Poor chap 1 He was going to take U3 for a drive to-morrow," said Constance. " To Morvah," explained Enid, with a syllabic emphasis meant for one pair of earß, "It is very nice of him -to struggle on and have a look at us," said Brand. "He oan come close enough to see. us, but that is all. Our small megaphone will be useless." Indeed the Lapwing .dared not approach nearer than the Trinity mooring buoy. By that time the three, protected from the biting wind by oilskin coats, were standing on the gallery. The reef was bellowing up at them with a continuous roar. A couple of acres of its surfaoe consisted of nothing pore tangible than white foam and driving spray. Stanhope, resigning the wheel to a sailor, braced himself firmly against the little vessel's foremast and began to strike a series of extraordinary attitudes with his arms and head. " Why is he behaving in that idiotio manner?" screamed Enid. " Capital idea — semaphore — clever fellow, Jack," shouted Brand. Abashed, Enid held her peace. The lighthouse keeper, signalling in turn that he was reaeiving the message, spelled out the following: — "Is all well?" " Yes," he answered. " Bates and Jackson reached hospital. Bates compound fracture. If weather moderates will be with you next tide." " All right," waved Brand. : The distant figure started again-— " L-o-y-e t-o E-n-i-d." Enid indulged in an extraordinary arm flourish.. . " A-n-d CiQ-n-s-t-a-n-c-e." " That spoils it," she screamed. "It ought to be only 'kind regards ' to you, Connie. I believe you are a serpent, "Do stop your, chatter," shouted Brand, and he continued the message— " Weather looks very bad. Little hope _for to-nightoH Lancelot due -at six. Will i see personally that no chance is lost. Good-bye."-

" Good-bye," \ras the response. The Lapwing fell away astern. from the vicinity of tho buoy. " Why is he doing that?" asked Constance, el6se to her father's ear. " He is too good a sailor to risk turning her in that broken water. , A little further out there is greater depth and more regular seas." They watched the yacht in silence. At last her head swung round towards the coast. When broadside on, a wave hit her, and the spray leaped over her masts. " That gave them a wetting," cried Brand, and his calm tone stilled their ready fear. Indeed there was greater danger. than he wanted them to know. But the Lapwing reappeared, shaking herself, and still turning. "Good little boat!' r said Brand. The crisis has passed. She was headed, at full speed, for the Bayv And not to soon. Ere she reached the comparative shelter of Clement's Island she was Bwept three times by green water. Inside the lantern, their faces ruddy with the exposure^ their eyes dancing with excitement, the girls were voluble with delight. Could anything be more thrilling than their experiences that aay? "That semaphore dodge is too precious to be lost/ cried Enid. " Connie, you and I must learn the alphabet. You shall teach us this very evening, dad. Fancy me signalling you the whole length of the promenade : ' Just look at Mrs Wilson's bonnet/ or 'JEere come the Taylor-Smiths. Scoot!' Oh, it's fine." She whirled her arms in stiff-jointed rigidity and mimicked Stanhope's fantastic posing. ( " Why should you scoot when you meet the Taylor-Smiths?" asked Brand. " Because Mrs T.-S. hauls us off to tea and gives us a gallon of gossip with every cup." " I thought your sex regarded gossip as the cream?" "Sex, indeed! Old Smith is worse than his wife. He doesn't say much, but he winks. One of his winks, at the end of, a story, turns an episode- into a j three-volume novel." " It seems to me I must teach you the code in my own self-defence," he replied. " And now for tea. Let us have it served here." They voted this an admirable notion. The girls enlivened the meal by relating to him the doings and sayings of current interest ashore during ths past two months. By a queer coincidence, which he did not mention, his relief was again duo within a week, just as on the occasion of Enid's first appearance on the rock. The fact struck him as singular. In all probability he would not return to duty* He had completed twenty-one years of active Bervice. Now he would retire, and when the commercial arrangements for the auriscope were completed, he would take his daughters on a long-promised Continental tour, unless, indeed, matters progressed between Stanhope and Enid to the point of an early marriage. 1 He had foreseen that Stanhope would probably ask Enid to be bis wire. He knew the youngster well, and liked him. For the opposition that Lady Stanhope might offer he cared not a jot. He Bmxled inwardly— as the convenient phrase has it — when, he reviewed the certain outcome of any dispute between himself and her ladyship. He would surprise her. ;'. .' y .. -Brand, the Hghthdtise keeper, antf vßi^E^/4agi¥fe : t^-claiin9 oi' his-ffdffprSKr daughter, would be two very different persons.' •• '' > ' ■;■■"•' ' r , .. Of course, all Penzance knew that Be was a gentleman, a scientist in a small way, and a man of means : otherwise Constance and Enid would not have .occupied the position they had held in local society. Those unacquainted with English ways oft-times make the mistake of rating a man's social status by. the means he possesses or the manner of his life in London. No greater error could be committed. The small, exclusively county town, the community which registers the family connections of many generations, is the only reliable index. Here, to be of gentle birth and breeding — not bad credentials even in the court of King Demos — confers Brahminical rank, no*»matter what the personal fortunes of the individual. Brand, it is true, did not belong to a Cornish County family, but there were those who conned him shrewdly. They regarded him as a well-meaning crank, yet the edict went forth that his daughters were to be " received," and received they were, with pleasure and admiration by all savo such startled elderly mammas as Lady Stanhope, who expected her good-looking son to contract a marriage which would restore the failing fortunes of the house. All unconscious ~ f the thoughts flitting through his brain, for Brand was busy trimming a spare lamp, the two girls amused themselves by learning the semaphore alphabet from a little Jiandbook which he had found for them. When the night fell, dark and lowering, the lamp was lighted. They had never before seen an eight-wicked concentric burner in use. The shore lighthouses, with which they -were better acquainted, were illuminated by electrioity or on th<» catoptric principle, wherein a large number of small Ar» gand lamps, with reflectors, are grouped togbther. To interest them, io keep their eyes and ears away from the low-water orgy of the reef, he explained to them the capillary action of the oil. Although whey had learnt those things in school, they had not realised the exactness of the statement that oil does not burn, but must first be converted into gas by the application of heat. On the Gulf i Book there were nearly 8000 gallons of colza oil, stored in tanks beneath, oolaa being used in preference to paraffin beoause it was safer, and there was no storage accommodation apart from the lighthouse. Requiring much greater heat than mineral oil to procure inflammable gas, the colza had to be forced by heavy pressure h^, the cistern right up to the edge of the wicks, and made to flow evenly over the rims of the burner, else the fierce flame would eat the metal disc as well. He read them a little leotureon the rival claims of gaa and electricity, and demonstrated how dazzlingly brilliant the latter could be on a dark clear night by showing*them the fine light on the Lizard. - "But in hazy weather the oil wins," he said, with the proper pride of every man in hia» own engine. "Fishermen; sailing into Penzance along a course equidistant from the two points tell me that if they can see anything at all on a roggy luglvtj tney invariably catch a i dull yellow radiance from the Rock, i whilst the Lizard is invisible. The oil has more penetrative power. Its chemi'ical combination is nearer the mean of resources." i At the proper time lie banished ! them to the kitchen to prepare dinner, a feast diverted from the hour of noon by the chances of the day. He adopted every expedient to keep them busy, to tire them physically and mentally, to render- them so exhausted that thej would sleep in blissful calm , througll the ordeal toxpme. . . As 'he could not wave the lamp, ana

they refused to eat apart; from him> the dinner, in three courses, was a breathless affair. Going up and down five flights of stairs with soup, joint, and pudding, whilst one carried the tray and the other swung a hand lantern in front, required time and exertion. They were cheerful as grigs over Enid, whose turn it was to bring up the plates of tapioca, pleaded guilty to a slight sensation of nervousness. . "I could not help remembering," she said; "what an awful lot of dark iron steps, thera were beneath me. It felt as if something were creeping up quickly behind to grab me by the ankles." "You should go up and down three times in the dark," was Brand's recipe. "When you quitted the door level for the third ascent you would cease to worry about impossible grabs." Constance looked at her watch. " Only eight o'clock 1 What a long day it has been," she commented. "IJTou must go to bed early. Sleep in my room. You will soon forget where you are: each of the bunks is comfortable. Now I will leave you in bharge of the lamp whilst I go and lock up." They laughed. It sounded so homelike. " Any fear of burglarsP" cried Enid. "Yea, most 'expert cracksmen, ' wind and rain, and — sleet," he added quietly. "I must fasten all the stormshutters and make everything snug. Don't stir until I wake you in the morning." "Poor old' dad 1" sighed Constance. "What a vigil!" He was making new entries in the weather report when she remarked thoughtfully — % "It is high-water about half-past one, I think?" He nodded, pretending to treat the question as of no special import. " From all appearances there will be a heavy sea," she went on. "Just an ordinary bad night," he said coolly. "Do the waves reach far up the lighthouse in a galeP" she persisted. Then Brand grasped Ihe situation firmly. "So that your slumbers may be j peaceful," he said, "I will call your kind attention to the fact that the Gulf Rock Light has appeared every' night during the past twenty-five years, or since a date some four years before you were born, Constance. It contains 4000 tons of granite and is practically monolithic, as if it were carved out of a quarry. Indeed, I think its Builder went one better than j nature. Here are no cracks or fissures i or undetected flaws. The lowest course is .bolted to the rock with wrought-iron clamps. Every stone is dove-tailed to its neighbours, and clasped to them with iron, above, below, and at the sides. If you understand conic sections I could make clearer the scientific aspeot of the structure, but you can take it, from me you are far safer here j than on a natural rock many times the dimensions of this column." " That . sounds very satisfactory," murmured Enid sleepily. * "I am overwhelmed," said Constance, who grasped the essential fact that he had not ; a.nswered her question. -Scon after -j^J^^clqc^^^^ld^d^ 'P%<gdod-iHgh%^ Th*sy%*QaS&ecl^nor to 'Bit up talking. As a guarantee of "goocl .Sen^viour ; Enid said she would ring the- electric .bell just before she climbed into her bunk. TEe signal came soon, and he was glad. He trusted to the. fatigue, the fresh air, the confidence of the knowledge that he was on guard, to lull them into the security of ■unconsciousness. The behaviour of the mercury puzzled him. In the barometer it fell, in the thermometer it rose. Increasing temperature combined with low pressure was not a healthy weather combination in. January. Looking back through the records of several' years, he discovered a similar set of conditions one day in March, 1891. He was stationed then on tEe north-east coast and failed to remember any remarkable circumstance connected with the date, so he consulted the lighthouse diary for that year. Ah ! Here was a possible explanation. The chief keeper,, a stranger to him, was something of a meteorologist. He had written: "At 4.15 p.m. the barometer stood at 27.16, and the thermometer at 46.80. There was a heavy sea and a No. 7 gale blowing from the S. S.-W. About five o'clock the increased to a hurricane and the sea became more violent than I have seen it during five years 7 experience of this station. Judging solely by- the clouds and the flight of birds, I should imagine that the cyclonic centre passed over the Scilly Isles and the Land's End." \ Then, next day — «"A steady north-east wind stilled the" sea most effectually. Within twenty-four hours of the first signs of thej hurricane the Channel was practice able for small craft. A fisherman reports that the coast is strewn with wreckage." Brand mused over the entries for a | while. With bis night glasses he peered long into the teeth of the growing storm to see if he could find the double flash of the magnificent light on the Bishop Rock, one of the Atlantic breakwaters of the Scilly Isles. It was fully thirty-five miles distant, but it flung its radiance over the waters from a height of 143 feet, and the Gulf Rock lamp stood J3O feet above high.water mark. A landsman would hot have distinguished even the nearer 1 re- j volutions of the St Agnes' light, especii ally in the prevalent gloom, and wisps of spindrift were already striking the lantern and blurring the glass. Nevertheless he caught the quick flashes reflected from clouds low. but unbroken. As yet there was a chance of the incoming tide bringing, better weather, and he bent again over the record of the equinoctial gale in 1891. Soon he abandoned this. nope. The growing thunder of the reef as the tide advanced gave the first unmistakable, warning of what was to come. As a mere matter of noise the reef roared its loudest at half-tide. He understood i now that -a gale had swept acroßs the | Atlantic in an irregular track. Howsoever the winds may rage the tides remain steadfast, and the great waves now rushing up from the west were actually harbingers of the fierce blast which had created them. Of course the threatened turmoil m L no wise disconcerted hlm.j It might be that the rock would remain inaccessible during many days. In that event the girls would take the watch after ! the lamp was extinguished, and they must learn to endure the monotony ! and discomforts of existence *in a I storm-bound lighthouse. They would be nervous unquestionably — perhaps he had forgotten how nervous— But .brand ■was a philosopher, arid at present he was most taken up with wonderment at the ourious blend of circumstances which resulted in their presence on the rock that night. [ Hal A tremor shook the great pil-

lar. He heard without the frenzied shriek of the first repulsed roller which, flung itself on the sleek and rounded wall. "Would the girls sleep through the next tew hours? Possibly, if awake, they would attribute the vibration of the column to the wind. He trusted it might be so. Shut in as they were they could not distinguish sounds. Everything to them would be a confused hum, with an occasional shiver af the granite braced its mighty heart to resist the enemy. . v > But what new note was this in th# outer chaos ? An ordinary gale shuddered and whistled and chanted ft» way past the lantern in varying tones. It sang, it piped, it bellowed, it play*, ed on giant reeds and crashed with cymbals. Now — he looked at the clock, after midnight — there was a sustained screech in the voice of the tempest which he did not remember having beard before. At last the explanation dawned on him. The hurricane was there, a few feet away, shut off from him by mere sheets of glass. The lighthouse thrust its tall shaft into this merciless tornado with steadfastness, and around its smooth contouri poured a volume of unearthly melody which seemed to surge up from th# broad base and was flung off into th# darkness by the outer sweep of th# cornice. . '-^ " The wind was travelling seventy, eighty, mayhap a hundred miles an hour. Not during all his no* in earlier travels through distant lands, had he ever, witnessed a storm of suobj fury. He thought he heard something craok overhead. He looked aloft, but all seemed well. Not until next day did he discover that the wind vane had been carried away, a wrought-iron shank nearly two inches thick having snapped like a piece of worsted at tha place where the tempest had found a? He tried to look out into the heart of the gale. The air was full of flying foam, but the sea was beaten * flat. If the growling monster beneath tried to fling a defiant crest at the tornado, thai whole mass of water, many tons in weight, was instantly torn from tha surface and flung into nothingness. Some of these adventurers, forced up by the reef, hit the lighthouse with' greater force than many a cannon-ball fired in battles which have made history. Time after time the splendid structure winced beneath the blow. If Stephen Brand were ever fated to know fear he was face to face with tho ngly phantom then. The \ granite column would not yield, but it wa» quite within the bounds of possibility that the entire lantern might be carried away, arid he with it. H« thought, with a catching of hii breath, of the two girls in the tiny room beneath. For one fleeting instant his mortal eyes gazed into the unseen. But the call of duty restored Mm. The excessive draught affected the lamp. Its ardour must be checked. With a' steady hand he readjusted the littljr brass screws. They were so superbly; indifferent to all this pandemonium* Just little brass screws, doing their work, and heeding naught beside* Suddenly there came to him the triumphant knowledge that the pure whitt beam of the light was hewingits path! through the savage assailant without aa calmly and fearlessly as it lit up we ocean wilds on a midsummer night of | moonlight. a.nd soft zephyrs. mured^loud. ;" How icatt die better than at' his.post?"'ii -^ The ring of iron ; benea£h caught his ears. He turned from the lamp. Constance appeared, pale, with shining eyes. She carried the lantern. Behind crept Enid, who had been crying; she strove now to check her tears. "Is this sort of thing normal, or a! I special performance arranged for our benefit?" said his daughter, with a finis attempt at a smile. " Oh, dad, I am so frightened," cried Enid. " Why does it howl so H" (To be continued.)