en looking
for you a long time."

"And I have, too, Joe; yes, you are my boy. I can see it now. Oh, the
dear Lord be praised!" and there was moisture in his eyes that was not
the salt from the raging sea.

"But--but," went on Joe. "I thought you went to China. I wrote to you at
Hong Kong."

"I did start for there, Joe; but the vessel on which I sailed was
wrecked, and this craft, bound back for San Francisco, picked us up. So
I didn't get very far. Oh, but I have found my boy!"

The others drew a little aside while father and son, so strangely
restored to each other by the fury of the sea, clasped each other close.

"Now, friends," said Mr. Ringold, bustling up; "those of you who are wet
through had better let us take care of you. We have room for you all,
and I'll send word to any of your friends if you'll give me the
addresses. Your wreck, in a way, has been a great thing for me, for I
have obtained some wonderful moving pictures of it and this rescue. It
will make a great drama. So I want to help you all I can."

By this time the captain of the vessel had been revived and with his
wife and crew was taken to the theatrical boarding place, where the
women busied themselves getting warm drinks and food, and the men
changed into dry garments loaned by the fishermen and the others. Soon
after the last one came ashore the wreck broke up and sank.

"Well, of all the wonderful things I ever experienced, this is the most
marvelous," declared Mr. Duncan, as he sat with his son's hand in his.
"I am wrecked twice, and come back to the same place I ran away from, to
find Joe waiting for me."

"It is wonderful," agreed Joe, wondering how he was going to bring up
the subject of the wreckers.

"Yes, this is the very place I left in such a hurry, a few months ago,"
went on Mr. Duncan.

"Would you mind telling me why you left so suddenly?" asked the
lighthouse keeper, solemnly. "Of course it's none of my affair; but I
might say it concerns you mightily, Nate Duncan. Can you prove your
innocence?"

"Prove my innocence! Of what charge?" cried the man.

"Oh, father, of course we don't believe it!" burst out Joe, unable to
keep silent longer; "but Hemp Danforth says you were implicated with him
in wrecking boats by means of false lights!"

"Hemp Danforth says that!" cried Joe's father.

"Yes. Tell me--tell all of them--that it isn't so!" pleaded the lad.

"Of course it isn't so, Joe."

"But why did you leave so sudden