again."

"Yes, they are to come back with every man and every boat in the Island.
I shall have my hands full. Are there more than these two places where
they can land?"

"Not good places, and these only when the sea is right. But angry
men--and ready to shoot you--oh, it is wicked--"

"We must hope the sea will keep them off, and that something may turn up
to throw some light on the other matter," he said, trying to comfort
her, though, in truth, the outlook was not hopeful, and he feared
himself that his time might be short.

"I will stop here and help you," she said, with sudden vehemence. "They
shall not have you. They shall not! They are wicked, crazy men," and the
little cloaked figure shook again with the spirit that was in it.

"Dear!" he said, putting his arm round her, and drawing her close. "You
must not stop. They must not know you have been here. I do not know what
the end will be. We are in God's hands, and we have done no wrong. But
if ... if the worst comes, you will remember all your life, dear, that
to one man you were as an angel from heaven. Nance! Nance! Oh, my dear,
how can I tell you all you are to me!"--and as he pressed her to him,
the bare white arms stole out of the cloak and clasped him tightly round
the neck.

"But how are you going to get back, little one? You cannot possibly swim
that Race again?" he asked presently, holding her still in his arms and
looking down at her anxiously.

"Yes, I can swim," she said valiantly. "I knew it would be worse than
usual, and I brought these"--and she slipped from his arms and groped on
the ground, and presently held up what felt to him in the darkness like
a pair of inflated bladders with a broad band between them. "And here is
a little bread and meat, all I could carry tied on to my head. We feared
you would be starving."

"You should not have burdened yourself, dear. It might have drowned you.
And I have eggs--puffins'--"

"Ach!"

"They are better than nothing, and I beat them up with cognac. But are
you safe in the Race, Nance dear, even with those things?"

"You cannot sink. If Bernel had only taken them! But he laughed at them,
and now--"

He kissed her sobs away, but was full of anxiety at thought of her in
the rushing darkness of the Race.

"I will go with you," he said eagerly, "and you will lend me your
bladders to get back with."

"You would never get back to L'Etat in the dark"--and he knew that that
was true. "We of Sark ca