on of the
shore.

Shank Leather had become a sturdy young fellow by that time, but was
much shorter than his friend. There was about him, however, an
unmistakable look of dissipation--or, rather, the beginning of it--which
accounted for Mrs Brooke's objection to him as a companion for her son.

We have said that the cottage lay about half-a-mile from the shore,
which could be reached by a winding lane between high banks. These
effectually shut out the view of the sea until one was close to it,
though, at certain times, the roar of the waves could be heard even in
Sealford itself.

Such a time was the present, for the gale had lashed the sea into
wildest fury, and not only did the three friends hear it, as, with bent
heads, they forced their way against the wind, but they felt the foam of
ocean on their faces as it was carried inland sometimes in lumps and
flakes. At last they came to the end of the lane, and the sea, lashed
to its wildest condition, lay before them like a sheet of tortured foam.

"Grand! isn't it?" said Brooke, stopping and drawing himself up for a
moment, as if with a desire to combat the opposing elements.

If May Leather could not speak, she could at all events gaze, for she
had superb brown eyes, and they glittered, just then, like glowing
coals, while a wealth of rippling brown hair was blown from its
fastenings, and flew straight out behind her.

"Look! look there!" shouted her brother with a wild expression, as he
pointed to a part of the rocky shore where a vessel was dimly seen
through the drift.

"She's trying to weather the point," exclaimed Brooke, clearing the
moisture from his eyes, and endeavouring to look steadily.

"She'll never weather it. See! the fishermen are following her
along-shore," cried young Leather, dropping his sister's arm, and
bounding away.

"Oh! don't leave me behind, Shank," pleaded May.

Shank was beyond recall, but our hero, who had also sprung forward,
heard the pleading voice and turned back.

"Here, hook on to me," he cried quickly, for he was in no humour to
delay.

The girl grasped his arm at once, and, to say truth, she was not much of
a hindrance, for, although somewhat inelegant, as we have said, she was
lithe as a lizard and fleet as a young colt.

A few minutes brought them to the level shore where Brooke left May to
shelter herself with some fisher-women behind a low wall, while he ran
along to a spot where a crowd of fishermen and old