ecious
a balm to thee as it once was to that godly woman.' With that she gave me
the 'Good day', and I pocketed the little red leather book, which did
indeed afterwards prove precious to me, though not in the way she meant,
and ran down street to the Why Not?

* * * * *

That same evening Elzevir and I left the Why Not?, went up through the
village, climbed the down, and were at the brow by sunset. We had started
earlier than we fixed the night before, because word had come to Elzevir
that morning that the tide called Gulder would serve for the beaching of
the _Bonaventure_ at three instead of five. 'Tis a strange thing the
Gulder, and not even sailors can count closely with it; for on the Dorset
coast the tide makes four times a day, twice with the common flow, and
twice with the Gulder, and this last being shifty and uncertain as to
time, flings out many a sea-reckoning.

It was about seven o'clock when we were at the top of the hill, and there
were fifteen good miles to cover to get to Hoar Head. Dusk was upon us
before we had walked half an hour; but when the night fell, it was not
black as on the last evening, but a deep sort of blue, and the heat of
the day did not die with the sun, but left the air still warm and balmy.
We trudged on in silence, and were glad enough when we saw by a white
stone here and there at the side of the path that we were nearing the
cliff; for the Preventive men mark all the footpaths on the cliff with
whitewashed stones, so that one can pick up the way without risk on a
dark night. A few minutes more, and we reached a broad piece of open
sward, which I knew for the top of Hoar Head.

Hoar Head is the highest of that line of cliffs, which stretches twenty
miles from Weymouth to St. Alban's Head, and it stands up eighty fathoms
or more above the water. The seaward side is a great sheer of chalk, but
falls not straight into the sea, for three parts down there is a lower
ledge or terrace, called the under-cliff.

'Twas to this ledge that we were bound; and though we were now straight
above, I knew we had a mile or more to go before we could get down to
it. So on we went again, and found the bridle-path that slopes down
through a deep dip in the cliff line; and when we reached this
under-ledge, I looked up at the sky, the night being clear, and guessed
by the stars that 'twas past midnight. I knew the place from having once
been there for blackberries; for