nd fire drove him but almost immediately. The
buckets were long of coming, and when they did arrive, their contents
were as nothing on the glowing cupola. Then Teddy went out on the
balcony and endeavoured to throw the water up, but the height was too
great. While he was doing this, Wilkie ran down for more water, but
Hall stood gazing upwards, open-mouthed with horror, at the raging
flames. At that moment the leaden covering of the roof melted, and
rushed down on Hall's head and shoulders. He fell, with a loud shriek.
While Teddy tried to drag him down to the room below, he exclaimed that
some of the melted lead had gone down his throat! He was terribly
burned about the neck, but his comrades had to leave him in his bed
while they strove wildly to check the flames. It was all in vain. The
wood-work around the lantern, from years of exposure to the heat of
twenty-four large candles burning at once, had become like tinder, and
the fire became so fierce that the timber courses composing the top of
the column soon caught. Then the keepers saw that any further efforts
would be useless. The great exertions made to carry up even a few
bucketsfull of water soon exhausted their strength, and they were driven
from room to room as the fire descended. At last the heat and smoke
became so intense that they were driven out of the lighthouse
altogether, and sought shelter in a cavern or hollow under the ladder,
on the east side of the rock. Fortunately it was low water at the time,
and the weather was calm. Had it been otherwise, the rock would have
been no place of refuge.

Meanwhile Mr Thomas Potter (our old friend Tommy--now, as we have said
an elderly gentleman) went off in a large boat with a crew of stout
fishermen from Cawsand Bay, having a smaller boat in tow. When they
reached the rock, a terrific spectacle was witnessed. The lighthouse
was enveloped in flames nearly to the bottom, for the outside planking,
being caulked and covered with pitch, was very inflammable. The top
glowed against the dark sky and looked in the midst of the smoke like a
fiery meteor. The Eddystone Rock was suffused with a dull red light, as
if it were becoming red hot, and the surf round it appeared to hiss
against the fire, while in the dark shadow of the cave the three
lighthouse keepers were seen cowering in terror,--as they well might,
seeing that melted lead and flaming masses of wood and other substances
were falling thickly ro