The Lighthouse by Robert Ballantyne

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THE LIGHTHOUSE

By R.M.BALLANTYNE
Author of "The Coral Island" &c.

BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED
LONDON GLASGOW BOMBAY

E-Test prepared by Roy Brown

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. THE ROCK.
II. THE LOVERS AND THE PRESS-GANG.
III. OUR HERO OBLIGED TO GO TO SEA.
IV. THE BURGLARY.
V. THE BELL ROCK INVADED.
VI. THE CAPTAIN CHANGES HIS QUARTERS.
VII. RUBY IN DIFFICULTIES.
VIII THE SCENE CHANGES--RUBY IS VULCANIZED.
IX. STORMS AND TROUBLES.
X. THE RISING OF THE TIDE--A NARROW ESCAPE.
XI. A STORM, AND A DISMAL STATE OF THINGS ON BOARD THE
PHAROS.
XII. BELL ROCK BILLOWS--AN UNEXPECTED VISIT--A DISASTER AND A
RESCUE.
XIII. A SLEEPLESS BUT A PLEASANT NIGHT.
XIV. SOMEWHAT STATISTICAL.
XV. RUBY HAS A RISE IN LIFE, AND A FALL.
XVI. NEW ARRANGEMENTS--THE CAPTAIN'S PHILOSOPHY IN REGARD TO
PIPEOLOGY.
XVII. A MEETING WITH OLD FRIENDS, AND AN EXCURSION.
XVIII. THE BATTLE OF ARBROATH, AND OTHER WARLIKE MATTERS.
XIX. AN ADVENTURE--SECRETS REVEALED, AND A PRIZE.
XX. THE SMUGGLERS ARE "TREATED" TO GIN AND ASTONISHMENT.
XXI. THE BELL ROCK AGAIN--A DREARY NIGHT IN A STRANGE
HABITATION.
XXII. LIFE IN THE BEACON--STORY OF THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE.
XXIII. THE STORM.
XXIV. A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS.
XXV. THE BELL ROOK IN A FOG--NARROW ESCAPE OF THE SMEATON.
XXVI. A SUDDEN AND TREMENDOUS CHANGE IN FORTUNES.
XXVII. OTHER THINGS BESIDES MURDER "WILL OUT".
XXVIII. THE LIGHTHOUSE COMPLETED--RUBY'S ESCAPE FROM TROUBLE BY A
DESPERATE VENTURE.
XXIX. THE WRECK.
XXX. OLD FRIENDS IN NEW CIRCUMSTANCES.
XXXI. MIDNIGHT CHAT IN A LANTERN.
XXXII. EVERYDAY LIFE ON THE BELL ROOK, AND OLD MEMORIES
RECALLED.
XXXIII. CONCLUSION.

THE LIGHTHOUSE

CHAPTER I

THE ROCK

Early on a summer morning, about the beginning of the nineteenth
century, two fishermen of Forfarshire wended their way to the shore,
launched their boat, and put off to sea.

One of the men was tall and ill-favoured, the other, short and
well-favoured. Both were square-built, powerful fellows, like most
men of the class to which they belonged.

It was about that calm hour of the morning which precedes sunrise,
when most living creatures are still asleep, and inanimate nature
wears, more than at other times, the semblance of repose. The sea was
like a sheet of undulating glass. A breeze had been expected, but,
in defiance of expectation, it had not come, so the boatmen were
obliged to use their oars. They used them well, however, insomuch
that the land ere long appeared like a blue line on the horizon, then
became tremulous and indistinct, and finally vanished in the mists of
morning.

The men pulled "with a will,"--as seamen pithily express in silence.
Only once during the first hour did the ill-favoured man venture a
remark. Referring to the absence of wind, he said, that "it would be
a' the better for landin' on the rock."

This was said in the broadest vernacular dialect, as, indeed, was
everything that dropped from the fishermen's lips. We take the
liberty of modifying it a little, believing that strict fidelity here
would entail inevitable loss of sense to many of our readers.

The remark, such as it was, called forth a rejoinder from the short
comrade, who stated his belief that "they would be likely to find
somethin' there that day."

They then relapsed into silence.

Under the regular stroke of the oars the boat advanced steadily,
straight out to sea. At first the mirror over which they skimmed was
grey, and the foam at the cutwater leaden-coloured. By degrees they
rowed, as it were, into a brighter region. The sea ahead lightened
up, became pale yellow, then warmed into saffron, and, when the sun
rose, blazed into liquid gold.

The words spoken by the boatmen, though few, were significant. The
"rock" alluded to was the celebrated and much dreaded Inch Cape--more
familiarly known as the Bell Rock--which being at that time unmarked
by lighthouse or beacon of any kind, was the terror of mariners who
were making for the firths of Forth and Tay. The "something" that was
expected to be found there may be guessed at, when we say that one of
the fiercest storms that ever swept our eastern shores had just
exhausted itself after strewing the coast with wrecks. The breast of
ocean, though calm on the surface, as has been said, was still
heaving with a mighty swell, from the effects of the recent elemental
conflict.

"D'ye see the breakers noo, Davy?" enquired the ill-favoured man, who
pulled the aft oar.

"Ay, and hear them, too," said Davy Spink, ceasing to row, and
looking over his shoulder towards the seaward horizon.

"Yer een and lugs are better than mine, then," returned the
ill-favoured comrade, who answered, when among his friends, to the
name of Big Swankie, otherwise, and more correctly, Jock Swankie.
"Od! I believe ye're right," he added, shading his heavy red brows
with his heavier and redder hand, "that _is_ the rock, but a man wad
need the een o' an eagle to see onything in the face o' sik a
bleezin' sun. Pull awa', Davy, we'll hae time to catch a bit cod or a
haddy afore the rock's bare."

Influenced by these encouraging hopes, the stout pair urged their
boat in the direction of a thin line of snow-white foam that lay
apparently many miles away, but which was in reality not very far
distant.

By degrees the white line expanded in size and became massive, as
though a huge breaker were rolling towards them; ever and anon jets
of foam flew high into the air from various parts of the mass, like
smoke from a cannon's mouth. Presently, a low continuous roar became
audible above the noise of the oars; as the boat advanced, the swells
from the southeast could be seen towering upwards as they neared the
foaming spot, gradually changing their broad-backed form, and coming
on in majestic walls of green water, which fell with indescribable
grandeur into the seething caldron. No rocks were visible, there was
no apparent cause for this wild confusion in the midst of the
otherwise calm sea. But the fishermen knew that the Bell Rock was
underneath the foam, and that in less than an hour its jagged peaks
would be left uncovered by the falling tide.

As the swell of the sea came in from the eastward, there was a belt
of smooth water on the west side of the rock. Here the fishermen
cast anchor, and, baiting their hand-lines, began to fish. At first
they were unsuccessful, but before half an hour had elapsed, the cod
began to nibble, and Big Swankie ere long hauled up a fish of goodly
size. Davy Spink followed suit, and in a few minutes a dozen fish lay
spluttering in the bottom of the boat.

"Time's up noo," said Swankie, coiling away his line.

"Stop, stop, here's a wallupper," cried Davy, who was an excitable
man; "we better fish a while langer--bring the cleek, Swankie, he's
ower big to--noo, lad, cleek him! that's it!--Oh-o-o-o!"

The prolonged groan with which Davy brought his speech to a sudden
termination was in consequence of the line breaking and the fish
escaping, just as Swankie was about to strike the iron hook into its
side.

"Hech! lad, that was a guid ane," said the disappointed man with a
sigh; "but he's awa'."

"Ay," observed Swankie, "and we must awa' too, so up anchor, lad. The
rock's lookin' oot o' the sea, and time's precious."

The anchor was speedily pulled up, and they rowed towards the rock,
the ragged edges of which were now visible at intervals in the midst
of the foam which they created.

At low tide an irregular portion of the Bell Rock, less than a
hundred yards in length, and fifty yards in breadth, is uncovered and
left exposed for two or three hours. It does not appear in the form
of a single mass or islet, but in a succession of serrated ledges of
various heights, between and amongst which the sea flows until the
tide has fallen pretty low. At full ebb the rock appears like a dark
islet, covered with seaweed, and studded with deep pools of water,
most of which are connected with the sea by narrow channels running
between the ledges. The highest part of the rock does not rise more
than seven feet above the level of the sea at the lowest tide.

To enter one of the pools by means of the channels above referred to
is generally a matter of difficulty, and often of extreme danger, as
the swell of the sea, even in calm weather, bursts over these ledges
with such violence as to render the channels at times impassable. The
utmost caution, therefore, is necessary.

Our fishermen, however, were accustomed to land there occasionally in
search of the remains of wrecks, and knew their work well. They
approached the rock on the lee side, which was, as has been said, to
the westward. To a spectator viewing them from any point but from
the boat itself, it would have appeared that the reckless men were
sailing into the jaws of certain death, for the breakers burst around
them so confusedly in all directions that their instant destruction
seemed inevitable. But Davy Spink, looking over his shoulder as he
sat at the bow-oar, saw a narrow lead of comparatively still water in
the midst of the foam, along which he guided the boat with consummate
skill, giving only a word or two of direction to Swankie, who
instantly acted in accordance therewith.

"Pull, pull, lad," said Davy.

Swankie pulled, and the boat swept round with its bow to the east
just in time to meet a billow, which, towering high above its
fellows, burst completely over the rocks, and appeared to be about to
sweep away all before it. For a moment the boat was as if embedded in
snow, then it sank once more into the lead among the floating tangle,
and the men pulled with might and main in order to escape the next
wave. They were just in time. It burst over the same rocks with
greater violence than its predecessor, but the boat had gained the
shelter of the next ledge, and lay floating securely in the deep,
quiet pool within, while the men rested on their oars, and watched
the chaos of the water rush harmlessly by.

In another moment they had landed and secured the boat to a
projecting rock.

Few words of conversation passed between these practical men. They
had gone there on particular business. Time and tide proverbially
wait for no man, but at the Bell Rock they wait a much briefer period
than elsewhere. Between low water and the time when it would be
impossible to quit the rock without being capsized', there was only a
space of two or three hours--sometimes more, frequently less--so it
behoved the men to economize time.

Rocks covered with wet seaweed and rugged in form are not easy to
walk over; a fact which was soon proved by Swankie staggering
violently once or twice, and by Spink falling flat on his back.
Neither paid attention to his comrade's misfortunes in this way.
Each scrambled about actively, searching with care among the
crevices of the rocks, and from time to time picking up articles
which they thrust into their pockets or laid on their shoulders,
according as weight and dimensions required.

In a short time they returned to their boat pretty well laden.

"Weel, lad, what luck?" enquired Spink, as Swankie and he met--the
former with a grappling iron on his shoulder, the latter staggering
under the weight of a mass of metal.

"Not much," replied Swankie; "nothin' but heavy metal this mornin',
only a bit of a cookin' stove an' a cannon shot--that's all."

"Never mind, try again. There must ha' bin two or three wrecks on the
rock this gale," said Davy, as he and his friend threw their burdens
into the boat, and hastened to resume the search.

At first Spink was the more successful of the two. He returned to the
boat with various articles more than once, while his comrade
continued his rambles unsuccessfully. At last, however, Big Swankie
came to a gully or inlet where a large mass of the _debris_ of a
wreck was piled up in indescribable confusion, in the midst of which
lay the dead body of an old man. Swankie's first impulse was to shout
to his companion, but he checked himself, and proceeded to examine
the pockets of the dead man.

Raising the corpse with some difficulty he placed it on the ledge of
rock. Observing a ring on the little finger of the right hand, he
removed it and put it hastily in his pocket. Then he drew a red
morocco case from an inner breast pocket in the dead man's coat. To
his surprise and delight he found that it contained a gold watch and
several gold rings and brooches, in some of which were beautiful
stones. Swankie was no judge of jewellery, but he could not avoid the
conviction that these things must needs be valuable. He laid the case
down on the rock beside him, and eagerly searched the other pockets.
In one he found a large clasp-knife and a pencil-case; in another a
leather purse, which felt heavy as he drew it out. His eyes sparkled
at the first glance he got of the contents, for they were sovereigns!
Just as he made this discovery, Davy Spink climbed over the ledge at
his back, and Swankie hastily thrust the purse underneath the body of
the dead man.

"Hallo! lad, what have ye there? Hey! watches and rings--come, we're
in luck this mornin'."

"_We!_" exclaimed Swankie, somewhat sternly, "_you_ didn't find that
case."

"Na, lad, but we've aye divided, an' I dinna see what for we should
change our plan noo."

"We've nae paction to that effec'--the case o' kickshaws is mine,"
retorted Swankie.

"Half o't," suggested Spink.

"Weel, weel," cried the other with affected carelessness, "I'd scorn
to be sae graspin'. For the matter o' that ye may hae it all to
yersel', but I'll hae the next thing we git that's worth muckle a' to
_mysel_'."

So saying Swankie stooped to continue his search of the body, and in
a moment or two drew out the purse with an exclamation of surprise.

"See, I'm in luck, Davy! Virtue's aye rewarded, they say. This is
mine, and I doot not there'll be some siller intilt."

"Goold!" cried Davy, with dilated eyes, as his comrade emptied the
contents into his large hand, and counted over thirty sovereigns.

"Ay, lad, ye can keep the what-d'ye-ca'-ums, and I'll keep the
siller."

"I've seen that face before," observed Spink, looking intently at the
body.

"Like enough," said Swankie, with an air of indifference, as he put
the gold into his pocket. "I think I've seed it mysel'. It looks like
auld Jamie Brand, but I didna ken him weel."

"It's just him," said Spink, with a touch of sadness. "Ay, ay,
that'll fa' heavy on the auld woman. But, come, it'll no' do to stand
haverin' this way. Let's see what else is on him."

They found nothing more of any value; but a piece of paper was
discovered, wrapped up in oilskin, and carefully fastened with red
tape, in the vest pocket of the dead man. It contained writing, and
had been so securely wrapped up, that it was only a little damped.
Davy Spink, who found it, tried in vain to read the writing; Davy's
education had been neglected, so he was fain to confess that he could
not make it out.

"Let _me_ see't," said Swankie. "What hae we here? 'The sloop is hard
an--an--'" ("'fast,' maybe," suggested Spink). "Ay, so 'tis. I canna
make out the next word, but here's something about the jewel-case."

The man paused and gazed earnestly at the paper for a few minutes,
with a look of perplexity on his rugged visage.

"Weel, man, what is't?" enquired Davy.

"Hoot! I canna mak' it oot," said the other, testily, as if annoyed
at being unable to read it. He refolded the paper, and thrust it into
his bosom, saying, "Come, we're wastin' time. Let's get on wi' our
wark."

"Toss for the jewels and the siller," said Spink, suggestively.

"Very weel," replied the other, producing a copper. "Heeds, you win
the siller; tails, I win the box;--heeds it is, so the kickshaws is
mine. Weel, I'm content," he added, as he handed the bag of gold to
his comrade, and received the jewel-case in exchange.

In another hour the sea began to encroach on the rock, and the
fishermen, having collected as much as time would permit of the
wrecked materials, returned to their boat.

They had secured altogether above two hundredweight of old
metal,--namely, a large piece of a ship's caboose, a hinge, a lock of
a door, a ship's marking-iron, a soldier's bayonet, a cannon ball, a
shoebuckle, and a small anchor, besides part of the cordage of the
wreck, and the money and jewels before mentioned. Placing the heavier
of these things in the bottom of the boat, they pushed off.

"We better take the corp ashore," said Spink, suddenly.

"What for? They may ask what was in the pockets," objected Swankie.

"Let them ask," rejoined the other, with a grin.

Swankie made no reply, but gave a stroke with his oar which sent the
boat close up to the rocks. They both re-landed in silence, and,
lifting the dead body of the old man, laid it in the stern sheets of
the boat. Once more they pushed off.

Too much delay had been already made. The surf was breaking over the
ledges in all directions, and it was with the utmost difficulty that
they succeeded in getting clear out into deep water. A breeze which
had sprung up from the east, tended to raise the sea a little, but
when they finally got away from the dangerous reef, the breeze
befriended them. Hoisting the foresail, they quickly left the Bell
Rock far behind them, and, in the course of a couple of hours, sailed
into the harbour of Arbroath.

CHAPTER II

THE LOVERS AND THE PRESS-GANG

About a mile to the eastward of the ancient town of Arbroath the
shore abruptly changes its character, from a flat beach to a range
of, perhaps, the wildest and most picturesque cliffs on the east
coast of Scotland. Inland the country is rather flat, but elevated
several hundred feet above the level of the sea, towards which it
slopes gently until it reaches the shore, where it terminates in
abrupt, perpendicular precipices, varying from a hundred to two
hundred feet in height. In many places the cliffs overhang the water,
and all along the coast they have been perforated and torn up by the
waves, so as to present singularly bold and picturesque outlines,
with caverns, inlets, and sequestered "coves" of every form and size.

To the top of these cliffs, in the afternoon of the day on which our
tale opens, a young girl wended her way,--slowly, as if she had no
other object in view than a stroll, and sadly, as if her mind were
more engaged with the thoughts within than with the magnificent
prospect of land and sea without.

The girl was

"Fair, fair, with golden hair,"

and apparently about twenty years of age. She sought out a quiet nook
among the rocks at the top of the cliffs, near to a circular chasm,
with the name of which (at that time) we are not acquainted, but
which was destined ere long to acquire a new name and celebrity from
an incident which shall be related in another part of this story.

Curiously enough, just about the same hour, a young man was seen to
wend his way to the same cliffs, and, from no reason whatever with
which we happened to be acquainted, sought out the same nook! We say
"he was seen", advisedly, for the maid with the golden hair saw him.
Any ordinary observer would have said that she had scarcely raised
her eyes from the ground since sitting down on a piece of
flower-studded turf near the edge of the cliff, and that she
certainly had not turned her head in the direction of the town. Yet
she saw him,--however absurd the statement may appear, we affirm it
confidently,--and knew that he was coming. Other eyes there were that
also saw the youth--eyes that would have caused him some degree of
annoyance had he known they were upon him--eyes that he would have
rejoiced to tinge with the colours black and blue! There were
thirteen pair of them, belonging to twelve men and a lieutenant of
the navy.

In those days the barbarous custom of impressment into the Royal Navy
was in full operation. England was at war with France. Men were
wanted to fight our battles, and when there was any difficulty in
getting men, press-gangs were sent out to force them into the
service. The youth whom we now introduce to the reader was a sailor,
a strapping, handsome one, too; not, indeed, remarkable for height,
being only a little above the average--five feet, ten inches, or
thereabouts--but noted for great depth of chest, breadth of shoulder,
and development of muscle; conspicuous also for the quantity of
close, clustering, light-brown curls round his head, and for the
laughing glance of his dark blue eyes. Not a hero of romance, by any
means. No, he was very matter of fact, and rather given to meditation
than to mischief.

The officer in charge of the press-gang had set his heart on this
youth (so had another individual, of whom more anon!) but the youth,
whose name was Ruby Brand, happened to have an old mother who was at
that time in very bad health, and she had also set her heart, poor
body, on the youth, and entreated him to stay at home just for one
half-year. Ruby willingly consented, and from that time forward led
the life of a dog in consequence of the press-gang.

Now, as we have said, he had been seen leaving the town by the
lieutenant, who summoned his men and went after him--cautiously,
however, in order to take him by surprise, for Ruby, besides being
strong and active as a lion, was slippery as an eel.

Going straight as an arrow to the spot where she of the golden hair
was seated, the youth presented himself suddenly to her, sat down
beside her, and exclaiming "Minnie", put his arm round her waist.

"Oh, Ruby, don't," said Minnie, blushing.

Now, reader, the "don't" and the blush had no reference to the arm
round the waist, but to the relative position of their noses, mouths,
and chins, a position which would have been highly improper and
altogether unjustifiable but for the fact that Ruby was Minnie's
accepted lover.

"Don't, darling, why not?" said Ruby in surprise.

"You're so rough," said Minnie, turning her head away.

"True, dear, I forgot to shave this morning----"

"I don't mean that," interrupted the girl quickly, "I mean rude
and--and--is that a sea-gull?"

"No, sweetest of your sex, it's a butterfly; but it's all the same,
as my metaphysical Uncle Ogilvy would undertake to prove to you,
thus, a butterfly is white and a gull is white,--therefore, a gull is
a butterfly."

"Don't talk nonsense, Ruby."

"No more I will, darling, if you will listen to me while I talk
sense."

"What is it?" said the girl, looking earnestly and somewhat anxiously
into her lover's face, for she knew at once by his expression that he
had some unpleasant communication to make. "You're not going away?"

"Well, no--not exactly; you know I promised to stay with mother; but
the fact is that I'm so pestered and hunted down by that rascally
press-gang, that I don't know what to do. They're sure to nab me at
last, too, and then I shall have to go away whether I will or no, so
I've made up my mind as a last resource, to----" Ruby paused.

"Well?" said Minnie.

"Well, in fact to do what will take me away for a short time,
but----" Ruby stopped short, and, turning his head on one side, while
a look of fierce anger overspread his face, seemed to listen
intently.

Minnie did not observe this action for a few seconds, but, wondering
why he paused, she looked up, and in surprise exclaimed--

"Ruby! what do you----"

"Hush! Minnie, and don't look round," said he in a low tone of
intense anxiety, yet remaining immovably in the position which he had
assumed on first sitting down by the girl's side, although the
swelled veins of his neck and his flushed forehead told of a fierce
conflict of feeling within.

"It's the press-gang after me again. I got a glance of one o' them
out of the tail of my eye, creeping round the rocks. They think I
haven't seen them. Darling Minnie--one kiss. Take care of mother if
I don't turn up soon."

"But how will you escape----"

"Hush, dearest girl! I want to have as much of you as I can before I
go. Don't be afraid. They're honest British tars after all, and won't
hurt _you_, Minnie."

Still seated at the girl's side, as if perfectly at his ease, yet
speaking in quick earnest tones, and drawing her closely to him, Ruby
waited until he heard a stealthy tread behind him. Then he sprang up
with the speed of thought, uttered a laugh of defiance as the sailors
rushed towards him, and leaping wildly off the cliff, fell a height
of about fifty feet into the sea.

Minnie uttered a scream of horror, and fell fainting into the arms of
the bewildered lieutenant.

"Down the cliffs--quick! he can't escape if you look alive. Stay, one
of you, and look after this girl. She'll roll over the edge on
recovering, perhaps."

It was easy to order the men down the cliffs, but not so easy for
them to obey, for the rocks were almost perpendicular at the place,
and descended sheer into the water.

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