sh on board."

"Think o' that now!" exclaimed Maroon his wrinkles expanding into a
bland smile of admiration.

"Don't think of it, but _do_ it," returned Smeaton, with a laugh.

The thing was done at once. The "plate" of the _Buss_ was melted down
and mixed with lead, the hooks were fixed into the jambs, and the doors
were hung in triumph. Solid doors they were too; not slender things
with wooden panels, but thick iron-plated affairs somewhat resembling
the armour of a modern ship-of-war, and fitted to defy the ocean's most
powerful battering-rams.

Progress thereafter was steady and rapid. There were points here and
there in the work which served as landmarks. On the 6th of August
Smeaton witnessed a strange sight--a bright halo round the top of the
building. It was no miracle, though it looked like one. Doubtless some
scientific men could give a satisfactory explanation of it, and prove
that it was no direct interposition of the hand of God. So could they
give a satisfactory account of the rainbow, though the rainbow _is_ a
direct sign to man. Whatever the cause, there the glory circled like a
sign of blessing on the work, and a fitting emblem of the life-giving,
because death-warding, beams which were soon to be sent streaming from
that tower by the hand of man.

Three days afterwards they began to lay the balcony floor; on the 17th
the main column was completed, and on the 26th the masonry was finished.
It only remained that the lantern should be set up. But this lantern
was a mighty mass of metal and glass, made with great care, and of
immense strength and weight. Of course it had to be taken off to the
rock in pieces, and we may almost say _of course_ the ocean offered
opposition. Then, as if everything had conspired to test the endurance
and perseverance of the builders, the first and second coppersmiths fell
ill on the 4th September. Skilled labour such as theirs could not
readily be replaced in the circumstances, and every hour of the now far
advanced season had become precious. Smeaton had set his heart on
"showing a light" that year. In this difficulty, being a skilled
mechanic himself, he threw off his coat and set to work with the men.

The materials of the lantern were landed on the 16th and fitted
together, and the cupola was hoisted to its place on the 17th. This
latter operation was extremely hazardous, the cupola being upwards of
half a ton in weight, and it had to be raised outsid