d Ruby aloud.

"So 'tis, lad; so 'tis," said Bremner, who at that moment had placed
a superb pot of codlings on the fire; "though why ye should say it so
positively when nobody's denyin' it, is more nor I can tell."

Ruby laughed, and retired to the mortar-gallery to work at the forge
and ponder. He always found that he pondered best while employed in
hammering, especially if his feelings were ruffled.

Seizing a mass of metal, he laid it on the anvil, and gave it five or
six heavy blows to straighten it a little, before thrusting it into
the fire.

Strange to say, these few blows of the hammer were the means, in all
probability, of saving the sloop _Smeaton_ from being wrecked on the
Bell Rock!

That vessel had been away with Mr. Stevenson at Leith, and was
returning, when she was overtaken by the calm and the fog. At the
moment that Ruby began to hammer, the _Smeaton_ was within a stone's
cast of the beacon, running gently before a light air which had
sprung up.

No one on board had the least idea that the tide had swept them so
near the rock, and the ringing of the anvil was the first warning
they got of their danger.

The lookout on board instantly sang out, "Starboard har-r-r-d! beacon
ahead!" and Ruby looked up in surprise, just as the _Smeaton_ emerged
like a phantom-ship out of the fog. Her sails fluttered as she came
up to the wind, and the crew were seen hurrying to and fro in much
alarm.

Mr. Stevenson himself stood on the quarter-deck of the little vessel,
and waved his hand to assure those on the beacon that they had
sheered off in time, and were safe.

This incident tended to strengthen the engineer in his opinion that
the two large bells which were being cast for the lighthouse, to be
rung by the machinery of the revolving light, would be of great
utility in foggy weather.

While the _Smeaton_ was turning away, as if with a graceful bow to
the men on the rock, Ruby shouted:

"There are letters here for you, sir."

The mate of the vessel called out at once, "Send them off in the
shore-boat; we'll lay-to."

No time was to be lost, for if the _Smeaton_ should get involved in
the fog it might be very difficult to find her; so Ruby at once ran
for the letters, and, hailing the shore-boat which lay quite close at
hand, jumped into it and pushed off.

They boarded the _Smeaton_ without difficulty and delivered the
letters.

Instead of returning to the beacon, however, Ruby was ordered to ho