t at fifty or forty miles from the lighthouse. No, boy,
that wouldn't work. Tillamook Rock is quite high enough!"

"It does look high," agreed the boy, following his father's gaze to
where, over the port bow, rose the menacing and forbidding reef on which
the light stood.

"It's the meanest bit on the coast," said the inspector. "Wouldn't you
say the sea was fairly smooth?"

"Like a mill-pond," declared Eric. "Why?"

"That just shows you," said his father. "You'd have to nail the water
down to keep it from playing tricks around Tillamook. Look at it now!"

The lad's glance followed the pointing finger. There was hardly a ripple
on the sea, but a long slow lazy swell suggested a storm afar off.
Slight as the swell was, it struck Tillamook Rock with a vengeful
spirit. Long white claws of foam tore vainly at the grim reef's sides
and the roar of the surf filled the air.

"Mill-pond, eh?" said the inspector. "Well, I can see where I get good
and wet in that same mill-pond."

He slipped on a slicker and a sou'wester.

"You'd better dig up some oilskins, Eric," he said. "Any of the men will
let you have them."

The boy slipped off part of his clothes, standing up in undershirt and
trousers.

"I like it better this way," he said.

The old inspector looked at his son with approval and even admiration.
Considering his years, the lad was wonderfully well developed, largely
as a result of swimming, and his summer with the Volunteer Corps had
sunburned him as brown as a piece of weathered oak.

"I think I'd rather go in that kind of a costume myself," his father
said, with a chuckle, "but I'm afraid it would hardly do for my official
uniform on an inspection trip!"

As he spoke, the rattle of the boat-davits was heard.

"Come along then, lad," said the inspector. "Just a moment, though.
Don't get any fool idea about showing off with any kind of a swimming
performance. You just be good and thankful to be hauled up by a crane!"

The boy took another look at Tillamook Rock, frowning above the surf.

"I'm not hankering after a swim there," he said; "I don't claim to be
amphibious, exactly. As you say, it's calm enough on the open water, but
I don't think anything except a seal or a walrus or something of that
kind could land on that rock. Not for me, thank you. I'll take the
crane, and gladly."

The ropes rattled through the davit blocks, and, as the _Manzanita_
heeled over a little, the boat took water, the blocks