was the only member who raised
his eyes in astonishment when the captain, looking his way, mentioned
the scrubbing and washing, each man to take his turn, but he made no
reply except to nudge Tod and say under his breath:

"Wouldn't you like to see Aunt Lucy's face when she comes some Saturday
morning? She'll be pleased, won't she?" As to the cooking, that did not
bother him; he and Tod had cooked many a meal on Fogarty's stove, and
mother Fogarty had always said Archie could beat her any day making
biscuit and doughnuts and frying ham.

Before the second week was out the Station had fallen into its regular
routine. The casual visitor during the sunny hours of the soft
September days when practice drill was over might see only a lonely
house built on the sand; and upon entering, a few men leaning back in
their chairs against the wall of the living-room reading the papers or
smoking their pipes, and perhaps a few others leisurely overhauling the
apparatus, making minor repairs, or polishing up some detail the
weather had dulled. At night, too, with the radiance of the moon making
a pathway of silver across the gentle swell of the sleepy surf, he
would doubtless wonder at their continued idle life as he watched the
two surfmen separate and begin their walk up and down the beach radiant
in the moonlight. But he would change his mind should he chance upon a
north-easterly gale, the sea a froth in which no boat could live, the
slant of a sou'wester the only protection against the cruel lash of the
wind. If this glimpse was not convincing, let him stand in the door of
their house in the stillness of a winter's night, and catch the shout
and rush of the crew tumbling from their bunks at the cry of "Wreck
ashore!" from the lips of some breathless patrol who had stumbled over
sand-dunes or plunged through snowdrifts up to his waist to give
warning. It will take less than a minute to swing wide the doors,
grapple the life-boat and apparatus and whirl them over the dunes to
the beach; and but a moment more to send a solid shot flying through
the air on its mission of mercy. And there is no time lost. Ten men
have been landed in forty-five minutes through or over a surf that
could be heard for miles; rescuers and rescued half dead. But no man
let go his grip nor did any heart quail. Their duty was in front of
them; that was what the Government paid for, and that was what they
would earn--every penny of it.

The Station house in