pearance of the clouds, and concluded
that "something was brewing." All along the shores stout men in glazed
and tarry garments noted the same appearances, and also concluded that
it would be dirty weather before long. The lifeboat men, too, were on
the _qui vive_; and, doubtless, the coxswain of each boat, from John o'
Groat's to the Land's-end, was overhauling his charge to see that all
was right and in readiness for instant service.

"It's going to blow to-night, Bax," said Guy, on entering the hovel of
the former.

"So 'tis," replied Bax, who was standing beside his friends Bluenose and
Tommy Bogey, watching old Jeph, as he busied himself with the model of
his lifeboat.

Jeph said that in his opinion it was going to be a regular nor'-easter,
and Bluenose intimated his adherence to the same opinion, with a slap on
his thigh, and a huge puff of smoke.

"You're long about that boat, Jeph," said Bluenose, after a pause,
during which he scanned the horizon with a telescope.

"So I am. It ain't easy to carry out the notion."

"An' wot may the notion be?" inquired Bluenose, sitting down on a coil
of rope, and gazing earnestly at the old man.

"To get lifeboats to right themselves w'en they're upset," replied Jeph,
regarding his model with a look of perplexity. "You see it's all very
well to have 'em filled with air-chambers, which prevents 'em from
sinkin'; but w'en they're upset, d'ye see, they ain't o' no use till
they gets on their keels again; and that ain't easy to manage. Now I've
bin thinkin' that if we wos to give 'em more sheer, and raise the stem
and stern a bit, they'd turn over natural-like, of their own accord."

"I do believe they would," said Bax. "Why, what put that into yer head,
old man?"

"Well, it ain't altogether my own notion," said Jeph, "for I've heard,
when I was in the port o' Leith, many years ago, that a clergyman o' the
name of Bremer had made a boat o' this sort in the year 1792, that
answered very well; but, somehow or other, it never came to anything.
There's nothin' that puzzles me so much as that," said the old man,
looking up with a wondering expression of countenance. "I don't
understand how, w'en a good thing is found out, it ain't made the most
of _at once_! I never could discover exactly what Mr Bremer's plan
was, so I'm tryin' to invent one."

As he said this, Jeph placed the model on which he was engaged in a
small tub of water which stood at his elbow. Guy, who