Darry the Life Saver | Page 6

unfamiliar surroundings; but seeing the kindly face of Abner
Peake bending over, he asked a mute question that the other answered
with a shake of his head.
The captain's body had not as yet come ashore.
CHAPTER III
ABNER PEAKE'S OFFER
Days passed. Darry had entirely given up hope of ever hearing from the
captain, whose body must have been carried out to sea again, as were
several of the crew.
After the shock became less severe, our hero began to take a new
interest in the scene around him, and particularly in connection with the
life-saving station where his new friend Abner was quartered.
The keeper was a grizzled surfman named Frazer, and a man possessed
of some education; he did not awaken the same feelings in the boy as
Abner Peake, but at the same time he was evidently inclined to be
friendly in his own gruff way.
On the third day after the rescue he called Darry to him as he sat
mending a net with which the crew of the station secured enough fish
to serve them for an occasional meal.
"Sit down, lad. I want to talk with you a bit," he said.

Darry dropped on a block close by.
He was still filled with the deepest admiration for these men of the
coast, and his determination to follow their arduous calling when he
grew big enough to take an oar in the surfboat was undiminished.
"Now, tell me about yourself, and where you belong. We are not
allowed to keep any rescued sailors more than a certain time. You
notice that all the others have gone, save the poor chaps lying under
those mounds yonder. Being a boy you've been favored; but the time
has come to know what you mean to do. Speak up, lad, and tell me
your story?"
Encouraged by his kind voice, Darry told all he knew about himself up
to the very moment when he parted from his friend, the captain.
Mr. Frazer seemed interested.
"I feel sorry for you, Darry. It must be hard to feel that you haven't got
a friend in the world. My hands are tied in the matter, so I can do
nothing; but there's Abner Peake telling me he'd like you to stay with
him," he remarked.
"I understood him to say he once had a boy about my age."
"Yes, a likely little chap, but it was about a year back he was lost."
"Was he drowned?" asked Darry, feeling that this was about the way
most persons in this coast country must meet their end.
"Yes. The little fellow was a venturesome boy, and tried to cross the
bay in a heavy sea. He must have been swept out at the inlet. They
found the boat on the beach, three miles above here, but never little Joe.
Abner has never gotten over it. To this day he sits and looks out to sea
as if he could discover his poor boy coming back to him. I thought for a
time the fellow would go out of his mind."
"And he wants me to stay with him?" continued Darry, musingly.

"Yes. Abner has a small house out of the village, where his wife and
the two little girls live, while he is over here at the station. Often we
want someone to cross over with supplies, and he thinks you might like
the job."
Darry drew a long breath.
"I have no home. The only one I ever knew was the poor old Falcon,
and her timbers are scattered along the coast for ten miles. I think that if
Mr. Peake really wants me to stay with him I shall accept gladly. It is
tough to feel like a piece of driftwood all the time," he said.
"I think you are wise in deciding that way. Abner is a kind man, and as
for his wife--well, she's got a temper all right, but if you don't rub it the
wrong way she can be got on with, I reckon. Anyhow, it would pay you
to try it until something else turns up. Maybe you want to ship on
another vessel?"
"I think I have had all of the sea I want, after that time. I wake up
nights, thinking I'm choking with the salt water, and trying to catch my
breath. When I get older and stronger I want to be a life saver like you,
sir."
The keeper smiled pleasantly.
It was not often he appeared as a hero in the eyes of even a boy, and,
being human, he could not help feeling some satisfaction.
"It's a dangerous calling, Darry; but, after all, no worse than that of a
sailor. And while we risk our lives often, it is to try and