rom some vast pipe. All the time, perhaps, there has
been a sharp breeze blowing high up in the air, the great wall of rock
preventing its striking where you are, but no sooner are you in front of
the opening than you feel its power.

Beside this, all may be calm elsewhere, while down the steep-sided
valley a keen blast rushes, coming from far inland, high up on the moor,
where it has perhaps behaved like a whirlwind, and having finished its
wild career there, has plunged down into the combe to make its escape
out to sea.

It was just such a gust as this last which suddenly came upon us,
raising the sea into short rough waves, and bearing upon its wings such
a tremendous storm of sharp cutting rain and hail, that, after fighting
against it for some time and feeling all the while that we were drifting
out to sea, we ceased rowing and allowed the boat to go, in the hope
that the squall would end in a few minutes as quickly as it had come on.

The rush of the wind and the beating and hissing of the rain was
terribly confusing. The waves, too, lapped loudly against the sides and
threatened to leap in; and while we glanced to right and left in the
hope of being blown in under shelter of the land, we found that the boat
was rushing through the water, our bodies answering the purpose of
sails.

We crouched down together, not to diminish the power of the wind, but in
that way to afford each other a little shelter from the drenching rain.

"It can't last long," shouted Bigley, for he was obliged to cry aloud to
make himself heard above the shrieking of the storm.

But it did last long and kept increasing in violence. The heavens, in
place of being of the soft bluish-grey that had been so pleasant when we
came out, had grown black, the rain all about us was like a thick mist
that shut out the sight of the cliffs, and with it the power of seeing
the hissing water descend into the sea for a few yards round, we forming
what seemed to be the centre of the mist.

And there we were, drive, drive before the wind at what we felt was
quite a rapid rate, till all at once the rain passed on, leaving us wet,
and cold, and wretched, and ready to huddle more closely still for the
sake of warmth.

But though the rain had passed on, and it was clear behind us as it was
dark ahead, while we could see the mouth of the Gap and the lowering
cliffs, the wind did not cease, but seemed to be blowing more angrily
than ever--with such force,