feet of
water. All scrambled as well as they could to the shore; but in a moment
we saw with dismay that one of the ladies was floating away on the
retreating wave, and Thornton was plunging after the helpless form.
Meanwhile the party on the parade had rushed frantically round to the
bay, shouting and screaming as they came.

"Where's the life-buoy?" shouted Captain O'Brien vaguely.

"Fetch the life-boat!" cried Captain Kelly, in a voice of command,
although there was no one to fetch it, and, for aught he knew, the
nearest was in London. The two Misses Bankes screamed at intervals like
minute guns. Mr. and Mrs. Delamere and their younger daughter looked on
in speechless agony. The young artist, like a sensible fellow, seized up
a coil of rope and dragged it towards the sea. The colonel embraced Mrs.
Bagshaw before the multitude.

"She will be drowned!" cried one.

"She is saved!" cried another.

"He has caught her, thank God! Well done!" shrieked a third.

Thornton had reached Florence, and was endeavouring to stagger back with
her in his arms; but the waves were too strong for him, and they both
fell, and were lost to sight in an enormous breaker, while everyone held
their breath. As the wave dispersed three forms could be seen struggling
forwards; and, amid the wildest cheers and excitement Hawkstone rolled
Thornton and his lady love upon the sand, and then threw himself on his
back quite out of breath.

Florence neither heard nor saw anything for some time. Captain Kelly
suggested water as being the best restorative under the circumstances.
Porkington wished he had not forgotten his brandy flask. The doctor's
son thought of bleeding, and played with a little pocket-knife in a
suggestive fashion. On a sudden Glenville, who always had his wits about
him, discovered the Drag seated on a rock in a state of helpless terror,
and smelling at a bottle of aromatic vinegar as though her life was in
danger. "Lend that to me--quick, Miss Candlish!" he cried, and seized
the bottle. The Drag struggled to keep possession of it, but in vain,
and then fainted away. The young lady soon recovered sufficiently under
the influence of the smelling bottle to walk home with the assistance of
Thornton and Mrs. Delamere. The rest of the party began to separate amid
much talking and laughter; for as soon as the danger was passed the whole
thing seemed to be a joke; and we had so much to talk of, that we hardly
noticed ho