The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-06-20
AT MAT ARTS LIGHT.
How H. M. S. Badger was Warned
in the Nick of Time.
BY JOHN ARTHUR BARRY.

hho hllN bkhlhOubtb III tho ~ ohu \ -
free of 1t at all hours. But 1t was O. nights that
/ loved best to Join the old man on his watch and
sit on tho balcony and gaze out at the great
ocean illumined at minute intervals by the flood
of white radiance that seemed to pour forth q
greeting to tho silent ships rs they passed and
rcpassed, or came straight for the hnrbor mouth.
Harding was q square-built, gray-hnired man
with n strong, determined face, all brown and
wrinkled by sun and storm, and eyes that burned
like live Goals under shaggy white brows.
AT odd times, athwart tho concentrated beams
that seemed to hit the far horizon would sail
ships, gloriied momentarily as they passed
through, with every spar and sail and rope
sharply outlined by tho sudden brilliancc; but
moro often they slid along between light and
wator, ilpdelned phantasmal blobs OF smudge,
out Of which, when the fancy took thom to mako
their numbers, would spout forth many-colorod
fires. all incomprehensiblo to the untutored eye
as the dim fabrics they proceeded from.
But Harding and his assistant signalmen road
Of ships and numbers as easily, apparently. as
II IL was broad daylight, and the telegraph would
repeat Mt intervals: Largo squaro-rigged ship
with painted ports. steering east by north.
| Made her numbe %, 745.' Or, It might DO,
Steamer, black funnel with white band, brig
rlgged, deep, bound south. showed no number"
But nothing largo or small ever escaped the
eagle lookout kept from that eyrio on the great
Cliff, whore the only sounds that broke tho long
night silonces were tho wash Of tho waves on
tho rugged kolp-grown rocks, 400 sheer feet be-
meath. and the subdued hum Of the big dynamo
in the basement.
This. you will see, was no isolated light stuck
forlornly hundreds of miles from anywhere. 1t
was an establishment over which Harding pro-
s~ided-quite n little settlement of Government
offices connected with the important depart
mont OF harbors, rivers and trade. His salary
was high; 80 was the efficiency of the service he
headed. And he was not averse to a little judi
cious praise now and again. On one of these oc-
casions l had said something respecting the
speedy Identification Of a foreign cruiser, and
the prompt wiring of details to the capital while
yet the warship crept quietly in as II desirous of
escaping attention, and little guessing that long
ere she reached the port a score of nine-inch
guns, to say nothing Of submarine mines and
Brennan torpedoes, would have blown her to
atoms had she disregarded the challenge of the
warned guardship at Inner Point. Well, I had
complimented him on the ceaseless vigilance.
and he chuokled, well pleased. and hemmed and
remarked: Now, that reminds moi"
Usually q ~taciturn man. and one engrossed in
his business. he was difficult to draw" Often
enough he had said as much before with no re-
suit; often matters had followed wcll worth tho
hearing. In any case I knew silence was best.
1t was a wild night, with a "southerly" blow
ing great guns. keeping tho sea ~fiattened into O
vast milky-whitee xpansc of foam. that kept up
a lonR-drawn. continuous roar at the foot OF tho
cliffs In fitting accompaniment to tho shrieking
blasts that wrestled and tore around the great
tower. as IL striving to shake it from its founds-
tions deep down in the solid rock.
Come along to my room," said Harding at
last after a good look around, Z" and we'll have a
pipe and a glass Of grog while tell you about
another lighthouse l ran. and another man-o'-
war that / watched twenty-five years ago now"
Descending into his private snuggery. beside q
bright fire, I took one of tho big armchairs
while Harding operated with hot water. case
bottle, lemons. and sugar. and. after fixing
matters. filled his pipe and said:
"Ay. it must be about fve-and-twenty years
now since the day I sat on the steps Of the Sail.
ors' Homo in Singapore stone broke. I'd been
first mate Of a ship called the Star of Africa that
the skipper managed to run slap on to a rock In
the Straits of sunde. 1t wasn't my fault, nor
did lose my ticket. like tho Captain. All the
same, I found 1t precious hard to get another
ship.
Owners as well as masters have fads and
prejudices in this respect-not perhaps as re-
CARDS a first time. But this happened to be my
second wreck running. So my luck. you see,
was dead out. Actually. only for bananas I
might have starved. Bananas and water fill up
and satisfy right enough, only 1t takes you all
your time to keep the supply going. Presently,
bb L SAT tnere, ulBebtlnB my second or third
breakfast, out came the master intendant, and
said he: Harding. II you stay here till the
moon turns blue you'll never get a ship. But a
billet's turned up that perhaps is better than
nothing. The Dutch have built a lighthouse
somewhere down yonder on the Bornean coast,
and q second keeper is wanted; wages eighty
guilders a month and ~rations. It's the merest
fuke that / happened to hear Of It. VIII you
take itf
ssNy-ou1d , dn,l, .wi,, 0,
"'All right. then, come along to Van veldt &
Co.'s office; theyl II take you on my
tion.' The Dutch agents did so without ques-
ton. More, they paid me a months wages In
advance. and sent me in one of their steamers
round to Batavia, where / was to get fresh or
ders. Arrived there. I was kept waiting a
month. But as l had good quarters and plenty
TO eat and drink, / didn't mind a bit spending
my dead horse in this way. One day, however,
l was told to got my belongings on board q little
fore-and-aft schooner which had been loading
stores for tho newly.built lighthouse.
ave were ten days on the passage, and whom
we brought up at our destination, and I saw
what I'd como to. I'd have taken ton days on
bananas and water to get away again.
"From a thickly wooded point a reef ran
nearly three-Quarters of a milo out into the
Macassar straits. At tho extreme end of Mat
Aris-as the point was c~alled-stood the light
house. You'd ha' laughed Imagine q sort of
shed. shaped like ono OF those oval-topped meat
safes, built on a platform resting on piles forty
feet high. That was all. From the shcd there
ran a corduroy bridge with a handrail, some
thirty feet back shoreward. to another and a
larger platform. where, in n large hut, we were
to live. Tho only way to get down to terra
frma was by ladders. At low water all you
could sec was mud and dozens of alligators, who
used to COME down "a river close to for salt water
bathing. Everywhere. almost down to the
soa. stood great trees 100 feet high, grow
to speak, and. as IL that wasn't enough,
crcepers, ferns, and underground OF all descrip-
tons tlled up every vacant chink between them.
On this impenetrablo face OF woodland the Of.
forts of the workmen and builders had merely
left q slight scrRtch-oven by this time rapidly
greening over. Nature heals her scars in that
country almost rs soon as received. The light
itself was merely n big lantern carrying eight
wicks, kerosene fed, and hung to the roof OF the
meat safe. That II had boon badly wanted. prim-
tive as 1t was, the remains of several vessels