--nobody will know us. I
am sorry to leave this grim and primitive place, even for Enckworth
Court.'

They wrapped themselves up, and descended the hill.

On drawing near the battling line of breakers which marked the meeting of
sea and land they could perceive within the nearly invisible horizon an
equilateral triangle of lights. It was formed of three stars, a red on
the one side, a green on the other, and a white on the summit. This,
composed of mast-head and side lamps, was all that was visible of the
Spruce, which now faced end-on about half-a-mile distant, and was still
nearing the pier. The girls went further, and stood on the foreshore,
listening to the din. Seaward appeared nothing distinct save a black
horizontal band embodying itself out of the grey water, strengthening its
blackness, and enlarging till it looked like a nearing wall. It was the
concave face of a coming wave. On its summit a white edging arose with
the aspect of a lace frill; it broadened, and fell over the front with a
terrible concussion. Then all before them was a sheet of whiteness,
which spread with amazing rapidity, till they found themselves standing
in the midst of it, as in a field of snow. Both felt an insidious chill
encircling their ankles, and they rapidly ran up the beach.

'You girls, come away there, or you'll be washed off: what need have ye
for going so near?'

Ethelberta recognized the stentorian voice as that of Captain Flower,
who, with a party of boatmen, was discovered to be standing near, under
the shelter of a wall. He did not know them in the gloom, and they took
care that he should not. They retreated further up the beach, when the
hissing fleece of froth slid again down the shingle, dragging the pebbles
under it with a rattle as of a beast gnawing bones.

The spot whereon the men stood was called 'Down-under-wall;' it was a
nook commanding a full view of the bay, and hither the nautical portion
of the village unconsciously gravitated on windy afternoons and nights,
to discuss past disasters in the reticent spirit induced by a sense that
they might at any moment be repeated. The stranger who should walk the
shore on roaring and sobbing November eves when there was not light
sufficient to guide his footsteps, and muse on the absoluteness of the
solitude, would be surprised by a smart 'Good-night' being returned from
this corner in company with the echo of his tread. In summer the six or
eight perenni