We saw it several times to-day." The two young men stood on a narrow ledge of stone that jutted out of the water.

This wall of stone was the first, outer or retaining wall of masonry---the first work of constructing a great breakwater.

At high tide, this ledge was just fourteen inches above the level surface of the Gulf of Mexico, and at the time of the above conversation it was within twenty minutes of high tide.

The top of this wall of masonry was thirty inches wide, which made but a narrow footway for the two youths who, on a pitch black night, were more than half a mile out from shore.
On a pleasant night, for a young man with a steady head, the top of this breakwater wall did not offer a troublesome footpath.

In broad daylight hundreds of laborers and masons swarmed over it, working side by side, or on scows and dredges alongside.
"Wait, and I'll show a light," volunteered Tom raising his foot-long flashlight.
Some seventy-five yards behind them a crawling snake-like figure flattened itself out on the top of the rock wall.
"Don't show the light just yet," pleaded Harry.