here the lifeboat had landed and where her friends were anxiously
awaiting her, "you've given me a chance to quit in a sort of 'blaze of
glory.' Don't you think that's something?"

"But won't you tell me who you are?" she pleaded.

"United States Volunteer Life-Saving Corps," he answered with a smile,
as he turned to go back to the station, "that's where the credit ought
to go."

"So this is your last day, Eric," said the Eel, an hour or so later, as
the boy stood on the platform of the life-saving station, looking
regretfully at the strip of beach.

"Yes, Eel," Eric rejoined thoughtfully. "I hate to leave here, too."

"I always hate to go, of course," his chum agreed, "but then it's
different with me. This is my vacation. When I quit here, it means that
I've got to get back to work. You're only going back to school."

"Not my fault," was the half-rueful answer; "I'd a heap sooner be going
into the Coast Guard right away. But I'm not ready yet."

"You will be, next year," said his friend, sympathetically.

"I know. But next year's a long way off and I wanted to stay here until
I was sure of my appointment. If Father were only going to stay another
year on the coast, I could finish my work here and then get ready for
the exams in June."

"Is he leaving?"

"Of course. Don't you remember I told you before!"

"Yes, so you did. I'd forgotten."

"We're hiking off at the end of this month. Father's been put in charge
of one of the districts on the Great Lakes."

"But I thought he was inspector here?"

"He's been acting-inspector for quite a while. But that was a temporary
appointment, while the inspector was ill."

"And you're going home a couple of weeks ahead to help pack, eh?"

"Ye-es," Eric answered, "of course that's a part of it. But I'm going
now because I want to see Uncle Eli before I go East. He's on Tillamook
Rock, you know."

"I knew he used to be," the Eel said, "but I thought when he made that
big real estate haul, he quit."

"He tried to," the boy agreed, "but he found he couldn't. Uncle Eli's an
old-timer, Eel. I used to be jealous of the Tillamook Light. He's just
as fond of it as he is of me, more, I think. I can quite see how he
would feel that way. It's always been just like his child. He was there
when the light was born."

"You mean its designing?"

"I mean its being born," Eric insisted. "Nearly all my people have been
in the Lighthouse Service, you know. They all have that way o