only to become a convert,
and exclaim accordingly.

"Why, we're drifting," cried Bigley, going to the line that held the
anchor, to find that it had been dragged out of the muddy sand, and that
we had slowly gone with the tide into deeper water, whose bottom there
was not length enough of rope for the grapnel to touch.

"I'll soon put that right," cried Bigley, unfastening the line and
letting about three fathoms more run out, but even then the anchor did
not reach bottom, and without we were stationary it was of no use to
fish.

"Haul in your lines, lads," cried Bigley, setting us an example by
dragging away at the cord which held the anchor. "We must row back a
bit. We've drifted into the deep channel. I didn't know we were out so
far."

"Oh, I say, look!" cried Bob. "It's beginning to rain, and we've no
greatcoats."

"Never mind," said Big, getting hold of the anchor as we drew in our
leads, and laid them with the hooks carefully placed aside, ready for
beginning again.

"Now, then, who's going to pull along with me!"

"You pull, Sep," said Bob. "I want to count the fish."

I took an oar, and just as I was about to pull the boat's head round I
looked towards the mouth of the Gap, which was nearly three-quarters of
a mile away, and though at present the smooth sea was just specked here
and there by the falling drops, over shoreward there was what seemed to
be a thick mist coming as it were out of the mouth of the Gap, and a
curious dull roar towards where we were.

"Going to be a squall," said Bigley. "Pull away, Sep, and let's get
ashore."

Easy enough to say--difficult enough to do, as we very soon found, in
spite of trying our very best.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

THE FOLLOWING NIGHT.

I have told you who did not know what our coast was like--one high wall
of cliffs and hills from six hundred to a thousand feet high, with
breaks where the little rivers ran down into the sea, and these breaks,
after the fashion of our Gap, narrow valleys that run into the land with
often extremely precipitous walls, and a course such as a lightning
flash is seen to make in a storm, zigzagging across the sky.

If you do not know I may as well at once tell you what is often the
effect of rowing or sailing along such a coast as ours: You may be going
along in an almost calm sea for hours, perhaps, till, as you row across
one of these valleys or combes, the wind suddenly comes rushing out like
an enormous blast f