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                      The Pillar of Light

                        By Louis Tracy

            _Author of "The Wings of the Morning"_


    "_And the rain descended, and the
    floods came, and the winds blew,
    and beat upon that house; and
    it fell not; for it was founded
    upon a rock._"

    _Matthew vii: 25_


    New York
    EDWARD J. CLODE
    156 Fifth Avenue
    1904

    Copyright 1904, by EDWARD J. CLODE

    _All rights reserved_

    May, 1904

    _Plimpton Press Norwood Mass._




[Illustration: LOW WATER--THE REEF]

[Illustration: THE GULF ROCK LIGHTHOUSE SECTION]




CONTENTS


        I _Flotsam_                                             1

       II _A Christening_                                      19

      III _The Signal_                                         37

       IV _The Voice of the Reef_                              57

        V _The Hurricane_                                      72

       VI _The Middle Watch_                                   92

      VII _The Lottery_                                       110

     VIII _An Interlude_                                      124

       IX _Mrs. Vansittart_                                   141

        X _Pyne's Progress_                                   156

       XI _Mrs. Vansittart's Fear_                            172

      XII _Preparations_                                      188

     XIII _Before the Dawn_                                   206

      XIV _The Way They Have in The Navy_                     223

       XV _Enid's New Name_                                   241

      XVI _Stephen Brand Explains_                            258

     XVII _Mrs. Vansittart Goes Home_                         281

    XVIII _Enid Wears an Old Ornament_                        301

      XIX _The House that Stood Upon a Rock_                  319




CHAPTER I

FLOTSAM


All night long the great bell of the lighthouse, slung to a stout beam
projecting seaward beneath the outer platform, had tolled its warning
through the fog. The monotonous ticking of the clockwork attachment that
governed it, the sharp and livelier click of the occulting hood's
machinery, were the only sounds which alternated with its deep boom. The
tremendous clang sent a thrill through the giant column itself and
pealed away into the murky void with a tremolo of profound diminutions.

Overhead, the magnificent lantern, its eight-ringed circle of flame
burning at full pressure, illumined the drifting vapor with an intensity
that seemed to be born of the sturdy granite pillar of which it was the
fitting diadem. Hard and strong externally as the everlasting rock on
which it stood,--replete within with burnished steel and polished brass,
great cylinders and powerful pumps,--the lighthouse thrust its glowing
torch beyond the reach of the most daring wave. Cold, dour, defiant it
looked. Yet its superhuman eye sought to pierce the very heart of the
fog, and the furnace-white glare, concentrated ten thousand-fold by the
encircling hive of the dioptric lens, flung far into the gloom a silvery
cloak of moon-like majesty.

At last an irresistible ally sprang to the assistance of the
unconquerable light. About the close of the middle watch a gentle breeze
from the Atlantic followed the tide and swept the shivering wraith
landward to the northeast, whilst the first beams of a June sun
completed the destruction of the routed specter.

So, once more, as on the dawn of the third day, the waters under the
heaven were gathered into one place, and the dry land appeared, and
behold, it was good.

On the horizon, the turquoise rim of the sea lay with the sheen of
folded silk against the softer canopy of the sky. Towards the west a
group of islands, to which drifting banks of mist clung in melting
despair, were etched in shadows of dreamy purple. Over the nearer
sea-floor the quickly dying vapor spread a hazy pall of opal tints.
Across the face of the waters glistening bands of emerald green and
serene blue quivered in fairy lights. The slanting rays of the sun threw
broadcast a golden mirage and gilded all things with the dumb gladness
of an English summer's day.

A man, pacing the narrow gallery beneath the lantern, halted for a
moment to flood his soul afresh with a beauty made entrancing by the