Page:Moving Picture Boys on the Coast.djvu/77

Rh so I understand. Bill was a reckless sort of chap, while Joe's father was quite steady."

"That's right," spoke Blake, and then he related how Joe had come to get a trace of his father.

"Well," resumed Mr. Stanton, "as I said, Duncan came here, and he and I got along well together. Then there came trouble."

"Trouble? What kind?" asked Joe.

"Trouble with wreckers, lad. The meanest and most wicked kind of trouble there can be on a sea-coast. A band of bad men got together and by means of false lights lured small vessels out of their course so they went on the rocks. Then they got what they could when the cargo was washed ashore."

"But what has that got to do with Joe's father?" asked Blake.

"Too much, I'm afraid, lad. It was said that the light here was allowed to go out some nights, so the false light would be more effective."

"Well?"

"Well, Nate Duncan had charge of the light at night after I went off duty. And it was always when I was off duty that the wrecks occurred."

"Do you mean to accuse Joe's father of being in with the wreckers?"

"No, lad. I don't accuse anybody; I'm too old a man to do anything like that. But ugly stories