"Great Scott, man!" exclaimed Ralph. "What sort of eyes have you got? I
couldn't tell whether she had a flag or not at this distance. How do you
do it?"

"'Cordin' to how you're brought up, as the goat said 'bout eatin'
shingle-nails," replied Captain Eri. "When you're at sea you've jest got
to git used to seein' things a good ways off and knowin' 'em when you
see 'em, too."

"I remember, one time," remarked Mrs. Snow, "that my brother
Nathan--he's dead now--was bound home from Hong Kong fust mate on
the bark Di'mond King. 'Twas the time of the war and the Alabama was
cruisin' 'round, lookin' out for our ships. Nate and the skipper--a
Bangor man he was--was on deck, and they sighted a steamer a good ways
off. The skipper spied her and see she was flyin' the United States
flag. But when Nate got the glass he took one look and says, 'That
Yankee buntin' don't b'long over that English hull,' he says. You see
he knew she was English build right away. So the skipper pulled down his
own flag and h'isted British colors, but 'twa'n't no use; the steamer
was the Alabama sure enough, and the Di'mond King was burned, and
all hands took pris'ners. Nate didn't git home for ever so long, and
everybody thought he was lost."

This set the captains going, and they told sea-stories until they came
to the road that led down to the beach beneath the lighthouse bluff. The
lifesaving station was in plain sight now, but on the outer beach, and
that was separated from them by a two-hundred-yard stretch of water.

"Well," observed Captain Eri, "here's where we take Adam's bridge."