ad on her breast, and
be a baby again.

Joe went down to the Doctor with a lantern.

"Van Note meant to run in the Chief to-night,"--in an anxious, inquiring
whisper.

"He's not an idiot!"

"No,--but, bein' near, the wind may drive 'em on the bar. Look yonder."

"See that, too, Joe?" said bow-legged Phil, from Tom's River, who was
up that night.

"That yellow line has never been in the sky since the night the James
Frazier--_Ach-h! it's come!_"

He had stooped to help Doctor Dennis with his harness, but now fell
forward, clapping his hands to his ears. A terrible darkness swept over
them; the whole air was filled with a fierce, risping crackle; then came
a sharp concussion, that seemed to tear the earth asunder. Miss
Defourchet cried aloud: no one answered her. In a few moments the
darkness slowly lifted, leaving the old yellow lights and fogs on sea
and land. The men stood motionless as when the tornado passed, Doctor
Dennis leaning on his old mare, having thrown one arm about her as if to
protect her, his stern face awed.

"There's where it went," said Joe, coolly, drawing his hands from his
pockets, and pointing to a black gap in the pine woods. "The best farms
in this Jersey country lie back o' that. I told you there was death in
the pot, but I didn't think it ud 'a' come this fashion."

"When will the storm be on us?" asked Mary, trembling.

Joe laughed sardonically.

"Haven't ye hed enough of it?"

"There will be no rain after a gust like that," said MacAulay. "I'll try
and get you home now. It has done its worst. It will take years to wipe
out the woe this night has worked."

The wind had fallen into a dead silence, frightened at itself. And now
the sudden, awful thunder of the sea broke on them, shaking the sandy
soil on which they stood.

"Thank God that Van Note is so trusty a sailor as you say!" said Mary,
buttoning her furs closer to her throat. "They're back in a safe harbor,
I doubt not."

Joe and Doctor Dennis exchanged significant glances as they stood by the
mare, and then looked again out to sea.

"Best get her home," said Joe, in a whisper.

Doctor Dennis nodded, and they made haste to bring the gig up to the
horse-block.

Old Phebe Trull had been standing stirless since the gust passed. She
drew a long breath when Mary touched her, telling her to come home with
them.

"That was a sharp blow. I'm an old Barnegat woman, an' I've known no
such cutters as that. But he'll come.