For three days Beck, Duncan and Ray’s Uncle Vance were in a precarious state. The men had spent most of their energy in battling for their lives after the wreck of the Fish Hawk and it was very fortunate that they possessed the fine strong bodies they did or they would never have rallied at all. In truth, all three were taken from the whaleboat more dead than alive, and when they were carried up to the lighthouse Captain Eli was almost certain that none would live over night.
The three rooms in Captain Eli’s cottage were devoted to hospital purposes and Jack and Ray and Mr. Warner shared the bunk-house with the rest of the crew for the time. Old Mitchell, the lobsterman, and Captain Eli took turns as physician and nurse to the unfortunate swordfishermen and worked diligently to restore them to normal health. Daily Jack and[233] either Mr. Warner or Big O’Brien visited the cottage to learn how the patients fared, and on several occasions they entered the sickrooms and tried to cheer up the men. But Ray, for reasons of his own, would not accompany them.
Indeed, since the day he saved his uncle from drowning Ray had been acting very peculiarly. He seemed undetermined what to do and Jack and Mr. Warner could not help sympathizing with him. Somehow, seeing his uncle close to the point of death, had made the lad forgive him for his past brutality. In truth, his heart had softened to the point where he would have been quite willing to do anything he could for the old swordfisherman. But though his intentions were good, he was quite timid in carrying them out, for, as he explained to Jack, he was not sure how his kinsman would receive him. For that reason he refrained from going near his uncle’s bedside or communicating with him in any way. He satisfied himself by visiting the cottage occasionally and inquiring from Mitchell or Captain Eli as to the state of his uncle’s health.
The lightkeeper and the fisherman proved efficient physicians, however, for they rallied[234] the men gradually and by the end of the week had them so that they could hobble downstairs and sit out in front of the cottage in the sunshine. Duncan and Beck seemed to regain their strength faster than Ray’s uncle, and in a short time after their first appearance downstairs they were going about the camp as hale and hearty as ever. Vance Carroll, however, did not find his strength as rapidly as the younger men, and for many a day he went hobbling about with the assistance of a cane which Captain Eli loaned him.
As soon as the storm had subsided the camp turned its attention to repairing the damage that the breakers had done out there on Cobra Head. The steel tower of the cableway needed repairing, new derricks had to be erected, new tool boxes constructed, and tremendous quantities of kelp and rockweed cleared away before the men could begin their building where they had left off before the storm. Of course, with these added tasks to be accomplished, Jack and Ray found that their duties increased in proportion. They, too, were very hard at work carrying out little details that Mr. Warner entrusted to them.
[235]
By the end of the second week following the storm, however, things were in excellent shape to resume work on the lighthouse structure, and after that there came a brief breathing spell for Mr. Warner and his two young assistants.
This was just what Ray had hoped for. He had been waiting all this time to show Mr. Warner his precious lifeboat model which he had brought through the storm from Mitchell’s house that day the Fish Hawk struck. Before taking part in the rescue he had shoved the two-foot tin model between the big blocks of granite on the top of the promontory and left it there until he found time to get it out and look it over. A few days after the storm he had brought it to the office shanty, but he had made no effort to show it to the engineer until he was certain that the man had time enough to go into every detail with him.
The first day that the rush of work let up and Ray found Mr. Warner strolling through the camp enjoying his early morning pipe, the boy asked him if he would not spare a few moments in the office with him.
Jack was already there doing some work that[236] he had left undone the day before, but when Ray brought Mr. Warner in, and a few moments later unearthed the lifeboat model from beneath a dozen rolls of discarded blue prints that had been tossed in one corner of the room, the lad from Drueryville put his work aside and stopped to listen.
Mr. Warner examined the curious little craft from all angles and paid strict attention while Ray explained the details of the idea. And after he had ceased talking the engineer was silent for some time while he scrutinized the metal boat more closely. Then finally he put the model on the table and exclaimed:
“By George, Ray, you’re a clever chap. I believe you have a corking scheme here, too. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll help you get patents on it and then I’ll see that it gets into the hands of a friend of mine who is in the metallic boat building business. I’ve an idea he might be able to do something with it.”
“Say, will you?” cried Ray enthusiastically, “Great! Perhaps I’ll be able to go to school after all. It—ah—”
“Tut, tut, son. Don’t get too excited about[237] the prospects. Remember, I didn’t say that you would get rich. It may not be a success, or—oh, a dozen things may happen to spoil the possibility of your getting any money out of it. Mighty few inventors ever get rich anyway. It is even possible that you can’t get a patent on it, for some one may have thought of the idea long ago. You’ll find when you get older that it is not an............