y it came
from his own ears; that his ebbing strength was feeling the frantic
struggle which he was making. The end was coming, he thought; but still
he kept valiantly on, set and silent, as is the way with brave men.

Suddenly from the top of the cliff a bright light flashed. He looked at
it sideways as he fought his way on, and saw the light rise and fall and
flicker as the flames leaped. High over him he saw fantastic figures
which seemed to dance on the edge of the high cliff. They had evidently
noticed him, and were making signals of some sort; but what the motions
were he could not see or understand, for they were but dark silhouettes,
edged with light, against the background of fire. The only thing he
could think was that they meant to encourage him, and so he urged himself
to further effort. It might be that help was at hand!

Several times as he turned his head sideways he saw the figures and the
light, but not so clearly; it was as though the light was lessening in
power. When again he looked he saw a new fire leap out on the edge of
the cliff, and some figures to the right of it. They were signalling in
some way. So, pausing in his swimming, he rose a little from the water
and looked at them.

A thrill shot through him, and a paralysing thought that he must have
gone mad. With his wet hand he cleared his eyes, though the touching
them pained him terribly, and for an instant saw clearly:

There on the edge of the cliff, standing beside some men and waving her
arms in a wild sweep as though motioning frantically 'Keep out! keep
out!' was a woman. Instinctively he glanced to his left and saw a white
waste of leaping water, through which sharp rocks rose like monstrous
teeth. On the instant he saw the danger, and made out seaward, swimming
frantically to clear the dangerous spot before the current would sweep
him upon the rocks.

But the woman! As one remembers the last sight when the lightning has
banished sight, so that vision seemed burned into his brain. A woman
with a scarlet riding-habit and masses of long red hair blowing in the
gale like leaping flame! Could there be two such persons in the world?
No! no! It was a vision! A vision of the woman he loved, come to save
him in the direst moment of great peril!

His heart beat with new hope; only the blackness of the stormy sea was
before him as he strove frantically on.

Presently when he felt the current slacken, for he had been swimm