about to apply the light, he
heard a noise behind him, and, turning hastily round, beheld the flushed
face and blazing eyes of his mate rising through the trap door that
communicated with the rooms below. Leaving his work, John hastened to
his friend, and with some difficulty persuaded him to return to his bed;
but no sooner had he got him into it and covered him up, than a new
paroxysm came on, and the sick man arose in the strength of his agony
and hurled his friend to the other side of the apartment. John sprang
up, and grappled with him while he was rushing towards the door. It was
an awful struggle that ensued. Both were large and powerful men; the
one strong in a resolute purpose to meet boldly a desperate case, the
other mad with fever. They swayed to and fro, and fell on and smashed
the homely furniture of the place; sometimes the one and sometimes the
other prevailing, while both gasped for breath and panted vehemently;
suddenly Dorkin sank down exhausted. He appeared to collapse, and John
lifted him with difficulty again into his bed; but in a few seconds he
attempted to renew the struggle, while the whole building was filled
with his terrific cries.

While this was going on, the shades of night had been falling fast, and
John Potter remembered that none of the candles had been lit, and that
in a few minutes more the rock would be a source of greater danger to
shipping than if no lighthouse had been there, because vessels would be
making for the light from all quarters of the world, in the full faith
of its being kept up! Filled with horror at the thought that perhaps
even at that moment vessels might be hurrying on to their doom, he
seized a piece of rope that lay at hand, and managed to wind it so
firmly round his mate as to render him helpless. Bounding back to the
lantern, he quickly lighted it up, but did not feel his heart relieved
until he had gazed out at the snowy billows below, and made sure that no
vessel was in view. Then he took a long draught of water, wiped his
brow, and returned to his friend.

Two days after that Isaac Dorkin died. And now John Potter found
himself in a more horrible situation than before. The storm continued:
no sooner did one gale abate than another broke out, so as to render
approach to the rock impossible; while, day after day, and night after
night, the keeper had to pass the dead body of his mate several times in
attending to the duties of the lantern. And