Keeper of the Light

Night falls on the coast and the ships are coming in. You keep the lighthouse. Turn its beam to guide every ship past the reefs and into harbour without a wreck. TURN THE BEAM Drag your finger anywhere on the sea and the beam turns to point that way. A ship in the light sails along its dotted course to the harbour. A ship in the dark stops dead. When two ships touch, or a ship hits a reef, it's a wreck. Three wrecks and the night is over. SPEAR OR SWEEP The beam's width follows how fast you turn it. Hold it still and it narrows to a bright spear that sends one ship home at full speed. Sweep it fast and it fans out wide and dim, and every ship it covers creeps along slowly. Every few seconds a storm swell rolls across the sea and pushes every unlit ship toward the rocks. Lit ships hold their place. So all night long you choose: rush one ship home, or keep the whole fleet safe. FOUR…