ve, and under the rocks of the projecting
headlands, which in fantastic succession on either side threw out their
weird arms into the sea; while just around the edge of the shore, where
the water was shallow over rocks and weed, was a girdle of lightest,
loveliest green. Guernsey, idealized in the morning mist, lay like a
dream on the horizon. Here and there a fishing-boat, whose sail flashed
orange when the sun touched it, was tossing on the waves; nearer in a
boat with furled sail was cautiously making for the narrow passage--the
Devil's Drift, as the fishermen called it--between the island and the
mainland, a passage only traversed with oars, the oarsmen facing
forwards; while the two occupants of another were just taking down their
sail preparatory to rowing direct for the landing-place.

The moment the girl caught sight of this last boat she began rapidly to
descend the 300 feet of cliff which separated her from the cove below.
The path began in easy zig-zags, which, however, got gradually steeper,
and the last thirty feet of the descent consisted of a sheer face of
rock, in which were fixed two or three iron stanchions with a rope
running from one to the other to serve as a handrail; and the climber
must depend for other assistance on the natural irregularities of the
rock, which provided here and there an insecure foothold. The girl,
however, sprang down the dangerous path, without the slightest
hesitation, though her skilful balance and dexterity of hand and foot
showed that her security was the result of practice.

By the time she had reached the narrow strip of beach, one of the few
and difficult landing-places which the island offered, the two fishermen
were already out of the boat, which they were mooring to an iron ring
fastened in the rock. One of the men was young; the other might be, from
his appearance, between sixty and seventy. A strange jerking gait, which
was disclosed as soon as he began to move on his own feet, suggested the
idea that his natural habitat was the sea, and that he was as little at
ease on land as some kinds of waterfowl appear to be when walking. He
could not hold himself upright when on one foot, so that his whole
person turned first to one side and then to the other as he walked.

"Marie!" he called to the girl as she alighted at the bottom of the
cliff, and he shouted something briefly which the strange jargon in
which it was spoken and the gruff, wind-roughened voice of the spe