Before he came to the bottom, Roger was back with the lantern. Captain John tied one end of the rope to the handle on the top of the lantern. He tied the other end round the oil box at the bottom of the lantern. Then he hoisted away until the lantern was about three-quarters of the way up to the big bough. Then he looked round. “Now,” he said, “if we make the downfall fast to this bush it won’t hang against the lantern, so there will be no danger of burning it. Now then, Able-seaman, you’re the lighthouse-keeper. Let’s see you bring the lantern down, light it, hoist it up again, and make fast. Here’s a box of matches. You can steady the lantern with the other part of the rope.”
Titty took hold of both parts of the rope, and paying out one and hauling on the other, she brought the lantern down. The rope slid easily over the bough. Then she opened the lantern and lit it, and began hauling it up.
“Is that the place for it?” she asked.
“About a foot higher.”
“That right?”
“Couldn’t be better. Now let’s see you make fast.”
Titty made fast the part of the rope that went over the bough to a little bush at the side of the lookout place, so that it was well out of the way. The other part, from the bottom of the lantern, she fastened round the trunk of the tree, so that the lantern hung straight. The spare rope lay on the ground between the tree and the bush.
“Fine,” said Captain John. “Lower away, and put it out.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
“That’s that,” said Captain John. “Light up the lantern for the lighthouse, and hoist it up just as soon as it begins to get dark. But it’s no