one o' the keepers
went to snuff the candles, for they only burned candles in the
lighthouses at that time, and before that time great open grates with
coal fires were the most common; but there were not many lights either
of one kind or another in those days. On gettin' up to the lantern he
found it was on fire. All the efforts they made failed to put it out,
and it was soon burned down. Boats put off to them, but they only
succeeded in saving the keepers; and of them, one went mad on reaching
the shore, and ran off, and never was heard of again; and another, an
old man, died from the effects of melted lead which had run down his
throat from the roof of the burning lighthouse. They did not believe
him when he said he had swallowed lead, but after he died it was found
to be a fact.

"The tower became red-hot, and burned for five days before it was
utterly destroyed. This was the end o' the second Eddystone. Its
builder was a Mr John Rudyerd, a silk mercer of London.

"The third Eddystone, which has now stood for half a century as firm as
the rock itself, and which bids fair to stand till the end of time, was
begun in 1756 and completed in 1759. It was lighted by means of
twenty-four candles. Of Mr Smeaton, the engineer who built it, those
who knew him best said that `he had never undertaken anything without
completing it to the satisfaction of his employers.'

"D'ye know, lads," continued Bremner in a half-musing tone, "I've
sometimes been led to couple this character of Smeaton with the text
that he put round the top of the first room of the lighthouse--`Except
the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it;' and also
the words, `Praise God,' which he cut in Latin on the last stone, the
lintel of the lantern door. I think these words had somethin' to do
with the success of the last Eddystone Lighthouse."

"I agree with you," said Robert Selkirk, with a nod of hearty approval;
"and, moreover, I think the Bell Rock Lighthouse stands a good chance of
equal success, for whether he means to carve texts on the stones or not
I don't know, but I feel assured that _our_ engineer is animated by the
same spirit."

When Bremner's account of the Eddystone came to a close, most of the men
had finished their third or fourth pipes, yet no one proposed going to
rest.

The storm without raged so furiously that they felt a strong
disinclination to separate. At last, however, Peter Logan rose, and
said he wo