ht, and he did not forget his friends upon
the Eddystone Rock.

"Get thee to bed, lass," he said when he had concluded. "I'll sit up
an' read the word. My eyes could not close this night."

Poor Mrs Potter meekly obeyed. How strangely the weather had changed
her! Even her enemies--and she had many--would have said there was some
good in her after all, if they had seen her with a tear trickling down
her ruddy cheek as she thought of her sailor boy.

Day broke at last. The gale still raged with an excess of fury that was
absolutely appalling. John Potter wrapped himself in a tarpaulin coat
and sou'wester preparatory to going out.

"I'll go with 'ee, John," said his wife, touching him on the shoulder.

"You couldn't face it, Martha," said John. "I thowt ye had bin asleep."

"No: I've bin thinkin' of our dear boy. I can face it well enough."

"Come, then: but wrap well up. Let Tommy come too: I see he's gettin'
ready."

Presently the three went out. The door almost burst off its hinges when
it was opened, and it required John's utmost strength to reclose it.

Numbers of people, chiefly men, were already hurrying to the beach.
Clouds of foam and salt spray were whirled madly in the air, and,
carried far inland, and slates and cans were dashing on the pavements.
Men tried to say to each other that they had never seen such a storm,
but the gale caught their voices; away, and seemed to mingle them all up
in one prolonged roar. On gaining the beach they could see nothing at
first but the heavings of the maddened sea, whose billows mingled their
thunders with the wind. Sand, gravel, and spray almost blinded them,
but as daylight increased they caught glimpses of the foam above the
rock.

"God help us!" said John, solemnly, as he and his wife and child sought
shelter under the lee of a wall: "_the light'ouse is gone_!"

It was too true. The Eddystone lighthouse had been swept completely
away, with the unfortunate Winstanley and all his men: not a vestige,
save a fragment of chain-cable, remained on the fatal rock to tell that
such a building had ever been.

CHAPTER TWO.

BEGINNING OF RUDYERD'S LIGHTHOUSE.

The terrible gale which swept away the first lighthouse that was built
on the Eddystone Rock, gave ample proof of the evils resulting from the
want of such a building. Just after the structure fell, a vessel, named
the "Winchelsea," homeward bound, approached the dreaded rock.
Trusting, doubtle