, but Em's shivering."

"Give her me coat," said the oarsman, resting on his oars and taking it
off. "Wrap it round her; and when it's round her we'll all let one big
halloo together. There's an ould shawl som'er in the boat, but I can't
be after lookin' for it now."

He held out the coat and an almost invisible hand took it; at the same
moment a tremendous report shook the sea and sky.

"There she goes," said Mr Button; "an' me old fiddle an' all. Don't be
frightened, childer; it's only a gun they're firin' for divarsion. Now
we'll all halloo togither--are yiz ready?"

"Ay, ay," said Dick, who was a picker-up of sea terms.

"Halloo!" yelled Pat.

"Halloo! Halloo!" piped Dick and Emmeline.

A faint reply came, but from where, it was difficult to say. The old
man rowed a few strokes and then paused on his oars. So still was the
surface of the sea that the chuckling of the water at the boat's bow as
she drove forward under the impetus of the last powerful stroke could
be heard distinctly. It died out as she lost way, and silence closed
round them like a ring.

The light from above, a light that seemed to come through a vast
scuttle of deeply muffed glass, faint though it was, almost to
extinction, still varied as the little boat floated through the strata
of the mist.

A great sea fog is not homogeneous--its density varies: it is
honeycombed with streets, it has its caves of clear air, its cliffs of
solid vapour, all shifting and changing place with the subtlety of
legerdemain. It has also this wizard peculiarity, that it grows with
the sinking of the sun and the approach of darkness.

The sun, could they have seen it, was now leaving the horizon.

They called again. Then they waited, but there was no response.

"There's no use bawlin' like bulls to chaps that's deaf as adders,"
said the old sailor, shipping his oars; immediately upon which
declaration he gave another shout, with the same result as far as
eliciting a reply.

"Mr Button!" came Emmeline's voice.

"What is it, honey?"

"I'm 'fraid."

"You wait wan minit till I find the shawl--here it is, by the same
token!--an' I'll wrap you up in it."

He crept cautiously aft to the stern-sheets and took Emmeline in his
arms.

"Don't want the shawl," said Emmeline; "I'm not so much afraid in your
coat." The rough, tobacco-smelling old coat gave her courage somehow.

"Well, thin, keep it on. Dicky, are you cowld?"

"I've got into daddy's great coa