he face of the blast.

My sister and father had retired to their rooms, but my thoughts
were too active for sleep, so I continued to sit and to smoke by the
smouldering fire.

What was going on in the Hall now, I wondered? What did Gabriel think of
the storm, and how did it affect the old man who wandered about in the
night? Did he welcome these dread forces of Nature as being of the same
order of things as his own tumultuous thoughts?

It was only two days now from the date which I had been assured was to
mark a crisis in his fortunes. Would he regard this sudden tempest as
being in any way connected with the mysterious fate which threatened
him?

Over all these things and many more I pondered as I sat by the glowing
embers until they died gradually out, and the chill night air warned me
that it was time to retire.

I may have slept a couple of hours when I was awakened by some one
tugging furiously at my shoulder. Sitting up in bed, I saw by the dim
light that my father was standing half-clad by my bedside, and that it
was his grasp which I felt on my night-shirt.

"Get up, Jack, get up!" he was crying excitedly. "There's a great ship
ashore in the bay, and the poor folk will all be drowned. Come down, my
boy, and let us see what we can do."

The good old man seemed to be nearly beside himself with excitement and
impatience. I sprang from my bed, and was huddling on a few clothes,
when a dull, booming sound made itself heard above the howling of the
wind and the thunder of the breakers.

"There it is again!" cried my father. "It is their signal gun, poor
creatures! Jamieson and the fishermen are below. Put your oil-skin coat
on and the Glengarry hat. Come, come, every second may mean a human
life!"

We hurried down together and made our way to the beach, accompanied by a
dozen or so of the inhabitants of Branksome.

The gale had increased rather than moderated, and the wind screamed all
round us with an infernal clamour. So great was its force that we had
to put our shoulders against it, and bore our way through it, while the
sand and gravel tingled up against our faces.

There was just light enough to make out the scudding clouds and the
white gleam of the breakers, but beyond that all was absolute darkness.

We stood ankle deep in the shingle and seaweed, shading our eyes with
our hands and peering out into the inky obscurity.

It seemed to me as I listened that I could hear human voices loud
in int