, slept like logs and were content.

Mr. Lee had followed the sea for many years. When scarcely out of his
teens, he had entered the navy. Later, he had shipped as a whaler, and
the boys listened breathlessly to the thrilling stories he had to tell
of his adventures in that perilous calling. After his wife's death, he
felt that the interests of his son required that he should stay at home;
so he had applied for the position of lighthouse keeper at Bartanet
Shoals, and had received it.

"You boys must be half starved," he said, as they entered the living
room of the lighthouse. "As I remember, you didn't have anything when
you started out except a few slices of bacon, and those wouldn't go far
with such a hungry crew as you are."

"Guess again, Dad," laughed Lester. "We didn't exactly starve last night
and this morning, did we, boys?"

"Um-yum," assented Fred, "I should say not! Clam soup and fried bacon
and broiled bluefish and hot coffee! Nothing more than that. And we
didn't do a thing to them, eh, fellows?"

"Not a thing!" chorused Bill and Teddy fervently.

Mr. Lee's eyes twinkled.

"I'm afraid I've made an awful mistake then," he said soberly. "I
thought you'd be nearly famished, and so I spread myself in getting up
an extra good dinner. But of course, if you've had so many good things,
you won't want anything more and I'll have to eat all alone."

He threw open the dining-room door and savory odors issued forth.

"Lead me to it!" shouted Bill. The next moment there was a regular
football rush, as the four laughing boys tried to beat each other to the
table.

CHAPTER X

THE CASTAWAY

For the next few minutes there was not much talking, and the boys
devoted themselves to making a wreck of the good things heaped before
them. Their morning in the salt air on the open sea had put them in fine
fettle and they had enormous appetites.

"Well," said Fred, when at last they were satisfied, "we have to hand it
to you as a cook, Mr. Lee. You certainly know how to make things taste
good."

"Lester comes rightly by his talent in fixing up the eats," declared
Bill.

"A sailor has to learn to turn his hand to anything," laughed their
host. "He gets into lots of places where he has to depend on himself
alone or go hungry. I've been shipwrecked twice in the course of my
life, and I've had to learn to eat all sorts of things and to cook them
in a way that would help me get them down."

"Talking about sh