CHAPTER XI

HEROES AND A MYSTERY


Luther Davis had been commandant at the life-saving station for years
and "Number One Man" before that, so his experience with wrecks and
disabled craft of all kinds had been long and varied. He told them
of disasters the details of which had been telegraphed all over the
country, and of rescues of half-frozen crews from ice-crested schooners
whose signals of distress had been seen from the observatory on the roof
of the station. He told of long rows in midwinter through seas the spray
of which turned to ice as they struck, and froze the men's mittens to
the oar-handles. He told of picking up draggled corpses in the surf at
midnight, when, as he said, "You couldn't tell whether 'twas a man or
a roll of seaweed, and the only way to make sure was to reach down and
feel."

Captain Eri left them after a while, as he had some acquaintances
among the men at the station, and wished to talk with them. Miss Davis
remembered that she had not fed the chickens, and hurried away to
perform that humane duty, gallantly escorted by Captain Perez. The
Captain, by the way, was apparently much taken with the plump spinster
and, although usually rather bashful where ladies were concerned, had
managed to keep up a sort of side conversation with Miss Patience while
the storytelling was going on. But Ralph and Elsie and Mrs. Snow were
hungry for more tales, and Captain Davis obligingly told them.