s, in which
superhuman power appears necessary, there is a sort of madness which is
more potent than courage. And after all, would it not be a folly to
immolate oneself for a mass of rusted iron. No: it was certain that
nobody would undertake to go to the Douvres on such an errand. The
engine must be abandoned like the rest. The engineer for such a task
would assuredly not be forthcoming. Where, indeed, should they look for
such a man?

All this, or similar observations, formed the substance of the confused
conversations of the crowd.

The captain of the _Shealtiel_, who had been a pilot, summed up the
views of all by exclaiming aloud:--

"No; it is all over. The man does not exist who could go there and
rescue the machinery of the Durande."

"If I don't go," said Imbrancam, "it is because nobody could do it."

The captain of the _Shealtiel_ shook his left hand in the air with that
sudden movement which expresses a conviction that a thing is impossible.

"If he existed--" continued the captain.

Deruchette turned her head impulsively, and interrupted.

"I would marry him," she said, innocently.

There was a pause.

A man made his way out of the crowd, and standing before her, pale and
anxious, said:

"You would marry him, Miss Deruchette?"

It was Gilliatt.

All eyes were turned towards him. Mess Lethierry had just before stood
upright, and gazed about him. His eyes glittered with a strange light.

He took off his sailor's cap, and threw it on the ground: then looked
solemnly before him, and without seeing any of the persons present,
said:

"Deruchette should be his. I pledge myself to it in God's name."

II

MUCH ASTONISHMENT ON THE WESTERN COAST

The full moon rose at ten o'clock on the following night; but however
fine the night, however favourable the wind and sea, no fisherman
thought of going out that evening either from Hogue la Perre, or
Bourdeaux harbour, or Houmet Benet, or Platon, or Port Grat, or Vazon
Bay, or Perrelle Bay, or Pezeries, or the Tielles or Saints' Bay, or
Little Bo, or any other port or little harbour in Guernsey; and the
reason was very simple. A cock had been heard to crow at noonday.

When the cock is heard to crow at an extraordinary hour, fishing is
suspended.

At dusk on that evening, however, a fisherman returning to Omptolle, met
with a remarkable adventure. On the height above Houmet Paradis, beyond
the Two Brayes and the Two Grunes, stands to the le