at those who ignore facts and prefer fancies are fools. We say it
respectfully. We have no intention of being personal, whoever you
may be.

On the morning after Ruby was cast on the Bell Rock, our old friend
Ned O'Connor (having been appointed one of the lighthouse-keepers,
and having gone for his fortnight ashore in the order of his course)
sat on the top of the signal-tower at Arbroath with a telescope at
his eye directed towards the lighthouse, and became aware of a
fact,--a fact which seemed to be contradicted by those who ought to
have known better.

Ned soliloquized that morning. His soliloquy will explain the
circumstances to which we refer; we therefore record it here. "What's
that? Sure there's something wrong wid me eye intirely this mornin'.
Howld on" (he wiped it here, and applying it again to the telescope,
proceeded); "wan, tshoo, three, _four_! No mistake about it. Try
agin. Wan, tshoo, three, FOUR! An' yet the ball's up there as cool as
a cookumber, tellin' a big lie; ye know ye are," continued Ned,
apostrophizing the ball, and readjusting the glass.

"There ye are, as bold as brass--av ye're not copper--tellin' me that
everything goin' on as usual, whin I can see with me two eyes (wan
after the other) that there's _four_ men on the rock, whin there
should be only _three!_ Well, well," continued Ned, after a pause,
and a careful examination of the Bell Rock, which being twelve miles
out at sea could not be seen very distinctly in its lower parts, even
through a good glass, "the day afther to-morrow 'll settle the
question, Misther Ball, for then the Relief goes off, and faix, if I
don't guv' ye the lie direct I'm not an Irishman."

With this consolatory remark, Ned O'Connor descended to the rooms
below, and told his wife, who immediately told all the other wives
and the neighbours, so that ere long the whole town of Arbroath
became aware that there was a mysterious stranger, a _fourth_ party,
on the Bell Rock!

Thus it came to pass that, when the relieving boat went off, numbers
of fishermen and sailors and others watched it depart in the morning,
and increased numbers of people of all sorts, among whom were many of
the old hands who had wrought at the building of the lighthouse,
crowded the pier to watch its return in the afternoon.

As soon as the boat left the rock, those who had "glasses" announced
that there was an "extra man in her".

Speculation remained on tiptoe for nearly three hours,